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LIFE AND WORK 

OF 

Theodore Roosevelt 

TYPICAL AMERICAN 

Patriot, Orator, Historian, Sportsman, Soldier, 
Statesman and President 

By 
THOMAS H. RUSSELL, LL.D. 

Author of "America's War for Humanity," etc., etc. 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

MERRITT STARR, M.A., LL.B. 

Contemporary at Harvard University with Colonel Roosevelt 

A SPECIAL TRIBUTE BY 

MAJOR-GENERAL LEONARD WOOD, U.S.A. 

Commanding the Central Department and 
Former Chief of Staff, United States Army 

ALSO SPECIAL ARTICLES AND TRIBUTES OF RESPECT 

BY MANY LEADERS IN PUBLIC LIFE, INTIMATE FRIENDS AND 

POUTICAL ASSOCIATES OF THE FORMER PRESIDENT 



Illustrated with Many Characteristic Portraits and 
Scenes in a Wonderful Life 






Copyright, 1919, by 
L. H. Walter 



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N. B.—The pliotographs reproduced in this book are copyrighted hy 
Underwood & Uu,lcrwood, New York; the International Film Service, 
Western Newspaper Union, or others, by whom all rights of further repro- 
duction are rcsarved. 

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■» their great President S 

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5 THEODORE ROOSEVELT g 

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^ whose whole career may be o 

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No Divided Allegiance in America 

"There must bo no saggiiii^ back in the fight for 
Americanism merely because the war is over. There are 
plenty of persons who have already made the assertion 
that they believe the American people have a short 
memory and that they intend to revive all the foreign 
associations which most directly interfere with the com- 
plete Americanization of our people. Our principle in 
this matter should be absolutely simple. In the first 
place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes 
here does in good faith become an American and assimi- 
late himself to us he shall be treated on an exact equality 
with everybody else, for it is an outrage to discriminate 
against any such man because of creed or birthplace or 
origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming 
in very fact an American, and nothing but an American. 
If he tries to keep segregated with men of his own origin 
and separated from the rest of America then he isn't 
doing his part as an American. There can be no divided 
allegiance at all." 

— Tjjeodoke Koosevelt. 



PREFACE 

The passing of Theodore Roosevelt from the stage of 
American life leaves a noticeable blank in the busy scene, 
but draws public attention more than ever to the won- 
derful and distinctive character of his career. 

More than merely interesting is the story of his life 
and work. It is full of instruction, by precept and exam- 
ple, for Americans of all classes and all ages. It is a 
story of which the reader will never tire. Abounding m 
action and achievement, it is extraordinary from begin- 
ning to end. Its pubhcation in any form needs no 
excuse, but in the complete form in which it is presented 
in these pages, it is fairly demanded by the American peo- 
ple, who revere the memory of their great leader and 
would fain preserve it as a priceless heritage. 

From the cradle to the tomb the career of Roosevelt 
was so thoroughly and tj^jically American that its study 
may well be regarded as a national duty. Most certainly 
it is the duty of every American parent to give his chil- 
dren the fullest possible opportunity to learn the lessons 
of this great career, and to profit by them. 

This volume aims to present the wonderful Roosevelt 
story in such a manner that young and old may gather 
from its pages a complete and correct view of the great 
patriot in all his many-sided aspects. It is therefore 
replete with illustrative anecdotes of his career, as well 
as ^vith the biographical details that are in themselves so 
unusually interesting. 

The graphic illustrations are numerou^s, and with 
propriety they consist mainly of photographs that depict 
the great American in characteristic attitudes and scenes 
in all the multifarious stages of his career. 

5 



Acknowledgments 



In the preparation of this volume many works on various phases of 
Colonel Roosevelt's life and services have been consulted, and acknowl- 
edgments are due the following, among other authors and pub- 
lishers of Rooseveltiana: 

Jacob A. Riis — "Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen" (The Outlook 
Company, 1903). 

Charles Eugene Banks and Leroy Armstrong — "Theodore Roose- 
velt, a Typical American" (E. R. Dumont, 1901). 

George William Douglas — "The Many-Sided Roosevelt" (Dodd, 
Mead & Co., 1907). 

Addison C. Thomas — "Roosevelt Among the People" (The L. W. 
Walter Co., 1910). 

Murat Halstead — "The Life of Theodore Roosevelt" (The Saalfield 
Publishing Co., 1902). 

J. Martin Miller — "Leaders and Issues of the Campaign of 1904" 
(The L. W. Walter Co., 1904). 

James Morgan — "Theodore Roosevelt, the Boy and the Man" (The 
Macmillan Company, 1907). 

Charles Scribner's Sons, publishers of Colonel Roosevelt's own 
books, Including "America and the World War" (1915), and 
the "Autobiography." 

Charles Hanson Towne and David Henderson, editors of McClure's 
Magazine — "The Fighting Roosevelts" (1918). 



CONTENTS 

Preface 5 

Introduction, by Merritt St.\jir 11 

CHAPTER I. — Theodore Roosevelt — In Memoriam 39 

Special Tributes by Major-Qeneral Leonard Wood, U. S. A.; 
Hon. Ctauncey M. Depew, Hon. Joseph G. Cannon, Col. 
Henry Watterson, Senator Hiram A. Johnson, Senator 
Miles Poindexter, Senator Joseph I. France, Hon. John 
Wanamaker, Bishop Samuel Fallows, Dr. Frank Crane, and 
Others. 

CHAPTER II.— Birth and Boyhood 77 

Theodore Roosevelt a Native of New York — His Pioneer 
Ancestry — Social and Political Leaders in New York City 
— His Parents and Grandparents — The Boy, Father of the 
Man. 

CHAPTER III.— Life at College 95 

Enters Harvard University — Appearance at That Time — A 
Studious Collegian — Vacations in the Maine Woods — 
Boxing at Harvard — Graduation — Another Trip to Europe. 

"t^HAPTER IV.— Entry into Politics 105 

Attends His First Primary — Discovers His Life Work — Nom- 
inated and Elected State Assemblyman — Fights Corruption 
and Beats a Hired Thug — Good Work and Valuable Experi- 
ence in the Legislature — Reform His Watchword — Early 
Steps in National Politics. 

CHAPTER v.— Life on the Ranch 115 

Getting Acquainted with the Wild West — Thrilled by the 
Plains — He Buys a Ranch — Gains by Western Life — Fight 
with a Bully — His Moral Strength — Hunting Big Game — 
The Roosevelt Ranch. 



CONTENTS— ( Continued) 



CHAPTER VI.— Return to Public Life 127 

Candidate for Mayor of New York — Second Marriage — Ldeal 
Domestic Life— Civil Service Commissioner — Police Com- 
missioner of New York — His Unusual Methods — Resigns to 
Become Secretary of the Navy. 

CHAPTER VII.— His Work for the Navy 139 

Assistant Secretary of the Navy Department — His Record as 
a Naval Author — Cutting Red Tape — Foresaw War with 
Spain — His Preparedness Order to Dewey — Improved Amer- 
ican Gunnery. 

CHAPTER VIII.— The Rough Riders 151 

Destruction of the ' ' Maine ' ' — Roosevelt Resigns from the 
Navy Department — Organizes the Rough Riders — Leonard 
Wood as Colonel — Record of the Regiment — Las Guasimas 
and San Juan Hill — Praise from General Wheeler — The 
Famous ' * Round Robin ' ' — Return to the United States. 

CHAPTER IX.— Governor of New York 165 

Nominated at Saratoga — Chauncey M. Depcw 's Nominating 
Speech — Roosevelt and Piatt — A Reform Administration — 
Taxation of Corporations — Nominated and Elected Vice- 
President of the United States. 

CHAPTER X.— He Succeeds McKinley 179 

Inaugurated as Vice-President — Relations with McKinley 
Pleasant — Assassination of the Presidfnt — Roosevelt in the 
Adirondaoks — He Becomes President — Followed McKinley 's 
Policies — An International Peacemaker. 

CHAPTER XL— Election as President 192 

Roosevelt as a Politician and Leader — His Success Predicted 
— Nominated for a Full Term and Triumphantly Elected — 
Many Reforms Urged — BringB Peace Between Russia and 
Japan — The Panic of 1907 — Foreign Relations. 

CHAPTER XII.— Record in the White House 208 

The Panama Canal Problem Solved — Mr. Roosevelt 's Conser- 
vation Polii-y — Praise from an laipartial Source — His 
Colonial Policy — The Standard Oil Fight — Consular Service 
Reformed — .Appointed General Wood as Chief of Staff — 
Secret of Roosevelt 's Success — Getting Close to the People. 



CONTENTS— (Contiuued) 



CHAPTER XIII.— In Africa and Europe 228 

Departure for Big-Oame Hunting in the African Jungle — 
Description of a Buffalo Hunt — The Colonel 's Vigor and 
Endurance — Eeturn to Civilization — Travels in Europe — 
Honored by Potentates and People — The Incident in Eonie 
— His Eeturn Home — Roosevelt and Taft. 

CHAPTER XIV.— The Progressive Party 241 

Roosevelt Chosen at the Primaries for President, but Denied 
a Nomination by the Bosses — Birth of the ' ' Bull Moose ' ' 
Party — He Is Nominated as Its Standard-bearer — Shot by 
a Crank in Milwaukee — His Courage and Endurance — 
Results of the Campaign — Taft Defeated and Wilson 
Elected, 

CHAPTER XV.— The Private Citizen 250 

Lectures in Principal Cities Followed by Exploration of the 
Brazilian Jungle — The " Eiver of Doubt "—Visits to Eng- 
land and Spain — The Barnes Libel Suit — Outbreak of the 
Great War — The Campaign of 1916 — He Declines Another 
Nomination. 

CHAPTER XVI.— Apostle of Preparedness 263 

Twenty Years of Warning to the United States — He Prac- 
tised What He Preached — Urged Universal Training in 
1914 — Roused the American Spirit — Offers of Personal 
Service Eejected — Statement by Eoosevelt and Taft — The 
Colonel's Attitude on the Great War. 

CHAPTER XVII.— A Family of Patriots 277 

Four Sons in Active Service — One Killed, Two Wounded, All 
Distinguished — Quentin 's Grave Visited by His Mother — 
War Records of the Eoosevelts — The Colonel 's Family- — 
Ideal Family Life — Love of the Outdoors — Oyster Bay a 
Mecca for Distinguished Visitors. 

CHAPTER XVIII.— The Young Man's Hero 285 

Theodore Roosevelt the Idol of American Youth — His Strong, 
Lovable Character Appealed to Its Imagination — One Secret 
of His Power as a Citizen — A Perennial Boy — Mourned by 
the Boys of America — The Colonel Among Children — How 
He Raised His Sons. 



CONTENTS— (Continued) 



CHAPTER XIX.— The Squ.vre Spoktsman 297 

Theodore Koosevelt 's High Standard in Sports — A Lover of 
Clean Sport — Himself an Athlete — Sports in the White 
House — A Close Follower of Football — A Great Hunter — 
His Fondness for Boxing — Friends Among the Experts — 
Wrestling at Albany — Roosevelt as an Outdoor Man — A 
Keally Great Naturalist. 

CHAPTER XX.— Roosevelt the Author 319 

Literature His Profession — A Prolific Writer of History, Pol- 
itics, Biography, Travel and Essays — Regular Contributor to 
the Magazines — Hie Versatility and Remarkable Output — A 
Master of Concise and Vigorous English — List of His 
Works. 

CHAPTER XXL— Anecdotes of Roosevelt 329 

Interesting Little Stories That Will Long Survive the Beloved 
Colonel, Dlustrating His Fearlessness, Energy, Versatility, 
Patriotism and Other Outstanding Traits of His Many- 
Sided Character. 

CHAPTER XXII.— Death and Burial 365 

The End Comes in His Sleep — Death Caused by a Pulmonary 
Embolism — His Last Words — Last Message to the Amer- 
ican People — None Present When He Died — Burial in Old 
Cemetery Near His Home — A Simple but Deeply Impressive 
Ceremony, Such as He Desired — Distinguished Men at the 
Funeral. 

CHAPTER XXIII.— A World in Mourning 393 

Messages of Grief and Sympathy — Tributes by Public Men 
in Many Countries — Official Action by States, Cities, Courts, 
and Public Bodies — .\utopraphed Expressions of Respect — 
A Special Day of Tribute to Theodore Roosevelt' s Lite and 
Memory. 

CHAPTER XXIV.— The Official Memorl^l 435-512 

Congress in .Joint Session with Crowded Galleries Hears a 
Magnificent Tribute to Theodore Roosevelt from the Lips 
of Senator Lodge, His Long-Time Personal and Political 
Friend. 



10 



INTRODUCTION 

By Meeeitt Staee^ M. A., LL. B. 

A noble life lias been lived. A noble life on earth has 
ended. The object of this sketch is to introduce an 
account of that life to the busy people of the world, and 
to the rising generation. 

Theodore Roosevelt was at his death the greatest pri- 
vate citizen of the world. He shared the life of his gen- 
eration and molded its future more than any other man. 
Three principles of action were dominant throughout his 
life, and should be recognized at the outset. They were : 

1. To make the best use of his life. 

2. '*To fear no evil"; and 

3. iVo5/e55e ofc/i^e (nobility obliges). Nobility, which 
the accident of birth or opportunity confers, requires 
nobility of life. 

Theodore quotes his father as telling him while a col- 
lege freshman, and during the last year of the father's 
life, ''that if I wished to become a scientific man, I could 
do so, * * * if I intended to do the very best work 
there was in me." 

His daring was inborn. Before he was six, his mother 
said: "If the Lord hadn't loved Theodore, he'd have 
been dead long ago. ' ' 

His father, Theodore Roosevelt, was in business, a 
glass importer; but he was a man of great public spirit. 
He drafted the Act of Congress creating the ''Allotment 

11 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Commission," officers who saw to it that an agreed part 
of the pay of the Civil War soldiers reached their fami- 
lies; and served as New York commissioner of allotment 
with William E. Dodge and Theodore B. Bronson. 

Roosevelt the father was one of the organizers of the 
Union League Club, the Sanitary Commission, the Sol- 
diers' Employment Bureau, the Children's Aid Society, 
head of the State Board of Charities, and founder of the 
Roosevelt Hospital. He was nominated by President 
Hayes for Collector of the Port of New York, but rejected 
through the influence of Roscoe Conkling. The time for 
appointing a Collector on civil service principles had not 
come. Early in the 1800 's two of the Rooeevelts were 
aldermen of New York, when that was a title of honor and 
of public service. Isaac Roosevelt sat in the Constitu- 
tional Convention "\\ith Alexander Hamilton. The public 
spirit ran in the family. 

Seven generations of Roosevelts preceded Theodore in 
New York, the first coming from Holland in 1644; and 
these Knickerbockers intermarried with Pennsylvanians, 
including English and Welsh Quakers, Scotch-Irish, Irish 
and Pennsylvania-Germans. 

His mother's people were Southerners, Georgians, of 
predominantly Scotch, but inclusive of Huguenot French, 
and English descent. They included slave-holders, sea 
captains, and two Confederate naval officers. Theodore 
was a composite. His father well-earned Theodore's 
tribute, "the best man I ever knew"; and the family 
sobriquet of "Great Heart." Theodore's upbringing was 
religious. Morning prayers for a start, and evening dress 
for dinner, were indispensable ; and the children enjoyed 
the parents' companionship and the prayers. "I speak for 
you and the cubby-hole (sofa-arm next the father) too," 

12 



INTRODUCTION 

was their cry as they raced for his coat-skirt, on the way 
to prayers. Before he was ten, he began collecting a zoo, 
and writing phonetically spelled natural histories. 

Born October 27, 1858, in New^ York City (at old No. 
28 East Twentieth Street) ; with two sisters and a brother 
he grew up in a normal and healthy family life. The 
summer home at Oyster Bay, on a hill overlooking Long 
Island Sound, in the family from his grandfather's time, 
helped this. At ten he made his first trip to Europe; 
and at fourteen his second, which was extended to Egypt 
and the Holy Land. From the beginning he was asth- 
matic and sickly and needed and received open-air treat- 
ment. At thirteen he got a gun, found out his need of 
spectacles, and put them on ; and began stuffing birds. 

Following his father's example, at fifteen he took, and 
for three years taught a Mission Sunday-school class in 
New York. He early became and throughout life remained 
a faithful member of the Dutch Reformed Church. 

Entering Harvard at eighteen, he taught a mission 
class in Boston or Cambridge throughout his four college 
years. This did not prevent him one midnight on return- 
ing from a Boston opera from chasing Prof. Lane's fine 
cat over several fences, and finally capturing, skinning, 
and stuffing it ; nor from beginning boxing lessons at four- 
teen, which he kept up through life, at the cost of an 
injury to the sight of an eye from a blow while in the 
A^Tiite House. He learned to defend and take care of him- 
self, and developed his natural love of fair play in a fair 
fight. Entering an exhibition match at the Harvard Gym, 
he stretched out his glove for the ring-courtesy hand- 
shake. His opponent, mistaking the gesture, warded it 
off and countered on Eoosevelt's nob. Teddy hushed the 
laughs and hisses of the front-seaters by holding up both 

13 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

hands and shouting in falsetto, "He didn't mean any- 
thing. He didn't understand." 

His development makes a record of obstacles over- 
come by determined industry. A sickly child, he became 
a healthy man. Dependent on spectacles, he became a 
sure shot. Originally slight, and handicapped in physique, 
he became a good boxer and rider (the last at the cost of 
many falls, one yielding a broken arm, another a broken 
rib, and another a cracked shoulder joint) all by persist- 
ent training. Ha\dng a falsetto break in his voice, still he 
became a most skillful public speaker, by the native fire 
within him, and dint of much practice. A born sport 
rather than a student, at his graduation (A. B.) in 1880, 
he made the Phi Beta Kappa, which ranked him in the 
first tenth of his class in scholarship. The death of his 
father when Teddy was twenty (and half through college) 
brought a quick sobering of responsibility, and pushed 
him early into a man's estate. 

In all this he was making the best use of his life. He 
feared no evil. Noblesse was written deep in his family 
inheritance. He was to ennoble it still further by public 
duty well performed. 

All our sketches are inadequate ; but an attempt at a 
birdseye view of some of the leading events of his life 
may be made with the help of this 

Partial Chronology 

Born in New York City in 1858 

Graduate at Harvard in 1880 

Law Student (New York University) in 1881 

Elected to New York Legislature three times, 

in 1881-1882-1883 

Republican candidate for Speaker in 1883 

14 



INTRODUCTION 

Delegate to New York Republican State Convention 

in 1884 

First of the four Delegates-at-Large from New York 
to Republican National Convention (the other 
three being Andrew D. White, John I. Gilbert 
and Edwin Packard). (His practical manage- 
ment of the New York State Convention secured 
the election of these four delegates-at-large, and 
placed him at the head of the delegation w^hich 
included George William Curtis and Thomas C. 

Piatt) 1884 

Ranchman in North Dakota 1884-1889 

Republican Candidate for Mayor of New York 1886 

United States Civil Service Commissioner 1889-1895 

President New York Police Commission 1895-1897 

Assistant Secretary United States Navy 1897-1898 

Organized Rough Riders (First U. S. Volunteer Cav- 
alry), Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel in Cuba 
Campaign, in which he took the lead in the bat- 
tles of Las Guasimas and San Juan Hill 1898 

Governor of New York (elected in 1898) 1899-1900 

Vice President of United States (unanimously nom- 
inated in 1900) 1901 

Succeeded to the Presidency September 14 1901 

Elected President (by largest majority ever given a 

candidate) 1904 

President of United States 71/2 years 1901-1909 

Initiated our Forest and Land and River Reclama- 
tion Policy 1901 

Settled the coal strike 1902 

Enforced the Monroe Doctrine in Venezuela, 1902- 

1903, and in Santo Domingo in 1905-1907 

15 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Recognized Republic of Panama and initiated con- 
struction of Panama Canal in 1903 

Re-elected President (is the only Vice-President who 
became President through the death of his pred- 
ecessor and then succeeded himself) 1904 

Negotiated the Russo-Japanese Peace Treaty 1905 

Outlined solution of Algeciras Conference concern- 
ing Africa (France, Germany, Spain, Morocco, 
Italy and United States) 1906 

(lie wrote the terms on the French Ambassador's 
visiting card.) 

Received the Nobel Peace Prize 1906 

Established Roosevelt Foundation for Industrial 

Peace 1907 

Secured Santo Domingo Treaty, recognizing Monroe 

Doctrine ' 1907 

Sent our fleet round the world — 42,000 miles — (first 

national fleet to circumnavigate the globe) .1907-1908 

Assembled first House of Governors in Conservation 

movement 1908 

Editor of "The Outlook" 1909-1914 

Tour of Africa and Europe 1909-1910 

Special Ambassador to England at funeral of Ed- 
ward VII 1910 

Lectured at European Universities, Oxford, Paris, 
and P>erlin (delivering the Romanes Lecture at 
Oxford) 1910 

At the written request of Governors of seven States 

he led the Progressive Campaign 1912 

Toured South America 1913 

16 




At the University of Chicago. President Roosevelt Receiving the Degree of Doctor 
of Laws from President Harper and Faculty. 



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Banquet in Chicago. The Most Notable Men of a Great City Were Gathered at 
This Feast in Honor of President Roosevelt. 




Three Generations of Roosevelts in a Family Group at Sagamore Hill. Left to 
Right — Theodore Roosevelt's Grandson, the Baby of Archibald; Colonel 
Roosevelt; Mrs. Archibald Roosevelt; Richard Derby, Jr.; Mrs. Theo- 
dore Roosevelt; and Baby Edith Derby on the Lap of Her Mother. Mr». 
Richard Derby, Who Was Miss Ethel Roosevelt. » »«"»«=r. «tr.. 




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INTRODUCTION 

Toured South America again; discovered and ex- 
plored 600 miles of unknown river, which the 
Brazilian Government named after him, Rio 

Teodoro 1914 

Attacked "invisible government*' in New York 1914 

Proved his attack and defeated Barnes libel suit. , . .1915 

Initiated the Preparedness movement. 1916 

Declined Progressive nomination and supported 

Hughes 1916 

Organized Roosevelt Legion of 150,000 men and ten- 
dered it to the Government 1917 

Championed more efficient and vigorous prosecution 

of war 1918 

Gave four sons to the service (three wounded, one 

killed) 1918 

Turned over Nobel Peace Prize to Soldiers* Aid So- 
ciety: 1918 

Some Results of His Life Work 

150 National Forests with an area of over 300,000 square 

miles. 

5 great National Parks. 

4 Reservations for Big Game. 

51 Bird Reservations. 

22 Reservations of American Antiquities. 

His Land Reclamation, Forest, and Game Preserve 

Policy saved and dedicated to public use an area greater 

than all Germany — greater than the combined area of 

Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. 

The twenty-two Reserves of American Antiquities, es- 
tablished through his efforts — a truly remarkable work — 
are as follows : 

17 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Name and State. Year. Acres. 

Chaco Canyon, N. ^l 1907 20,629 

Cinder Cone, Cal 1907 5,120 

Devil's Tower, Wyo 1906 1,152 

El Morro, N. M 1906 160 

Gila Cliff Dwellings, N. .M 1907 160 

Grand Quivira, N. M 1909 160 

Grand Canyon, Ariz 1908 806,400 

Jewel Cave, S. D 1908 1,280 

Lassen Peak, Cal 1907 1,280 

Lewis and Clark Cavern, Mont 1908 160 

Montezuma Castle, Ariz 1906 160 

Mount Olympus, Wash 1909 608,640 

Muir Woods, Cal 1908 295 

Mukuntuweap, Utah 1909 15,840 

Natural Bridges, Utah 1909 2,740 

Navajo, Ariz 1909 600 

Oregon Caves, Ore 1909 480 

Petrified Forest, Ariz 1906 25,625 

Shoshone Cavern, Wyo 1909 210 

Tonto, Ariz 1907 640 

Tumaeacori, Ariz 1908 10 

Wheeler, Col 1908 300 

He was the first to begin this system of Reserves. 
Since then, under the influence of his initiative, eleven 
other Reserves of American Antiquities have been added 
to the list. 

He built the Panama Canal, the greatest public work 
in all history. From sea to sea, across the isthmus, he 
carved, '^ Theodore Roosevelt, his mark." 

He built the Roosevelt Dam in Arizona (opened 1911). 
He raised the United States Navy from near the bot- 
tom to second place. 

He made three fleets ready and munitioned; and sent 
Dewey to the Philippines, two months in advance of the 
Spanish war. The victories of Manila and Santiago and 
their fruits were due to his preparedness. 

At Santo Domingo in 1905 he made the United States 

18 



INTRODUCTION 

receiver of customs; paid forty-five per cent to Santo 
Domingo and fifty-five per cent to foreign creditors; 
restored peace without firing a shot ; enforced the Monroe 
Doctrine. This was embodied in the treaty with Santo 
Domingo, ratified in 1907, and established a precedent 
followed in Costa Rica. He established a policy of civil 
protectorate for the smaller states. 

Measures for Social and Industrial Justice and Wel- 
fare, he made leading public policies. 

He enforced and extended the eight-hour law and 
made it alive. 

Appointed the first Country Life Commission. 

Secured Workmen's Compensation and Employer's 
Liability Laws. 

Developed the Bureau of Mines. 

Maintained the open shop, for both union and non- 
union labor. 

His book, ''Conservation of Womanhood and Child- 
hood," published in 1912, following his policy as Gov- 
ernor of New York, practically initiated the movement for 
national legislation to protect woman labor and forbid 
child labor, in works under Federal control. 

When he became Civil Service Commissioner in 1889, 
he found 14,000 Government officers under the civil serv- 
ice rules. He left 40,000 there ; and as Jacob Riis said in 
1904, ''there are 125,000 now, and when the ransomed 
number 200,000, it will still be Roosevelt's work." Ap- 
pointed by President Benjamin Harrison, he fought and 
defeated Harrison's Postmaster General over the 
appointment of postmen in Indianapolis, Harrison's home 
town. He was retained in office by President Cleveland 
in 1893-4-5; and when Roosevelt insisted on retiring at 
the end of his term, Grover Cleveland wrote him: "You 

]9 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

are certainly to be congratulated upon the extent and 
permanency of the civil service reform methods which 
you have so substantially aided in bringing about. The 
struggle for its firm establishment and recognition is 
past. Its faithful application and reasonable expansion 
remain, subjects of deep interest to all who really desire 
the best attainable service." 

In 1890, after a year of service as National Civil Serv- 
ice Commissioner, he came to Chicago and helped us in 
our struggle for city and State civil service laws. At a 
mass meeting we held in Madison Street Theatre in 
March, 1890, addressing an audience, half supporters, 
half opponents, he said: ''Every ward heeler who now 
ekes out a miserable existence at the expense of oflSce- 
holders and candidates is opposed to our policy, and we 
are proud to acknowledge it. Every politician who sees 
nothing but reward of office in the success of a party or a 
principle is opposed to us, and we are not sorry for it. 
* * We propose to keep a man in office as long as he 
serves the public faithfully and courteously. * * "We 
propose that no incumbent shall be dismissed from the 
service unless he proves untrustworthy or incompetent, 
and that no one not specially qualified for the duties of 
the position shall be appointed. These two statements we 
consider eminently practical and American in principle." 
(Riis, pp 109-110.) 

On Government operation of railways he said: "Be- 
fore that question can be so much as discussed, it ought 
to be definitely settled that, if the Government takes con- 
trol, of either telegraph line or railway, it must do it to 
manage it purely as a business undertaking, and must 
manage it with a service wholly unconnected with poli- 
tics. I should like to call the special attention of the gen- 

20 



INTRODUCTION 

tlemen in bodies interested in increasing the sphere of 
State action — interested in giving the State control more 
and more over railways, over telegraph lines, and over 
other things of the sort — to the fact that the condition 
precedent upon success is to establish an absolutely non- 
partisan governmental system. When that point is once 
settled, we can discuss the advisability of doing what 
these gentlemen wish, but not before." (Riis, p. 112.) 

He exemplified the psychological truth that man can- 
not be split up into departments ; that the intellect is the 
whole man thinking; the sensibilities are the whole man 
feeling; and the will is the whole man deciding. In few 
men are they so thoroughly commingled. Still, it is con- 
venient to consider his qualities in the established class- 
ification. 

Let us simply observe his personality in three groups 
of qualities; namely, those of his intellect, those of his 
ethical nature or character, and those of his temperament. 

Leading traits of his intellect were : 

1. Nobleness. He took things in the large, high way, 
and not in the low or petty way. 

2. Idealism. He saw that everything contains a 
promise of something better; that everything could be 
improved. He saw things both as they are in reahty 
and also in imagination, as if the improvements had come 
into being, and things were freed of defects. 

3. Concentrated application. His intellect was over- 
poweringly active. His extraordinary endowments com- 
bined ceaseless activity with single-eyed attention to the 
chosen goal. His industry was marvelous. His intellect, 
sensibilities, and will combined instinctively in this. 

4. Insight or intuition. He had immediate under- 
standing of people. He saw into things deeply and with 

21 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

instmctive perception. He simply absorbed the best 
thought of the past and of his time. 

5. Geniality. He was intellectually akin to and at- 
tuned to the life of the world about him. He shared the 
life of his kind, human kind, and was always cordial and 
hearty and social, and of good fellowship. This trait 
characterized him intellectually, ethically, and temper- 
amentally. 

In his moral nature : 

1. Rectitude was his leading trait. He was upright 
and downright. He saw straight. He gave and demanded 
the square deal and fair play. Out of this came 

2. Honesty. He was honest to the core. 

3. Fidelity. He was faithful. He enlisted for the 
war. He stayed through to the end. 

4. Patriotism. He was always a plus American. 

5. Dutifulness. He overflowed with zeal for good. 
In home life he was an exemplar. Wife, children, par- 
ents, relatives, and countless friends, found him ever a 
model of clean, pure, high living. 

In inborn temperament : 

1. Chivalrous courage comes first. **I will fear no 
evil,** was his attitude, consciously and unconsciously. 
He never feared the face of man. **Fear God and Take 
Your Own Part" entitled one of his last books, and char- 
acterized his life. His spirit was dauntless. This was 
higher and deeper than fearlessness. It was intrepid 
{gallantry for the worthy cause. 

2. Power, which is force, ready and easy in use, he 
had beyond most men. He had phenomenal driving en- 
ergy. Vigorous, strong, rugged, he was indeed a man of 
might. 



INTRODUCTION 

3. Alertness. He was ever quick. He had dashing 
initiative. **A young fellow of infinite dash and orig- 
inality, ' ' said John Hay in 1901. 

4. Joyousness continuously radiated from him. He 
delighted in doing his daily task and doing it well. He 
was a clean, true sport. He saw life as a strenuous work, 
brightened into a mighty game. He always made the first 
move. He drank dehght of battle with his peers. ** De- 
lighted" was the greeting in his heart and on his lips. 
He saw everything with a sparkle of humor. 

5. Unselfish ambition. Just as he naturally saw that 
things could be better, he was ambitious and determined 
to make them better. ''Follow the gleam" (of the vision 
of better things) was his natural rule of action. 

He was a genius. A genius is an enlargement of the 
common mind and heart — a man with eye to see, heart to 
conceive, and hand to execute, more than other men. His 
power of concentration on the thing in hand and ease in 
transferring his concentrated attention to the next were 
great. 

To illustrate — A Congressman brought him a Water 
Power Bill. The President slowly passed his eye down 
over it from beginning to end, and handed it back with the 
remark: ''Yes, that's important, and the Waterways 
Commission ought to have that before them." "But, 
Mr. President, I should like to have you familiarize your- 
self with it. I believe it will interest you. " "I have done 
so," replied Roosevelt, "you can examine me on it, if you 
wish." 

A continental author and statesman was visiting New 
York during the campaign of 1910. A New York lawyer 
took him to an open-air meeting where Roosevelt was 
speaking. A voice in the crowd cried: "Tell us about 

23 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Cuba and San Juan Hill." T. R.: ''Oh, you want to hear 
how w^e helped out the Cigar Makers' Strike?" And a 
concluding paragraph of the speech followed. Five min- 
utes later, being introduced to the continental author, he 
said: **I enjoyed reading your new book on Social De- 
mocracy and especially your views in the seventh chap- 
ter." 

Roosevelt's intellectual output is monumental. 

In the thirty-seven years from 1882 to 1919, he for a 
time conducted a ranch, contributed articles to many 
periodicals, served as visitor to Harvard University, was 
editor of *'The Outlook" four years, brought out forty- 
three volumes of books, and a similar volume of messages 
and reports, besides unnumbered editorials and ad- 
dresses. The volumes may be classified thus : 

Histories : Winning of the West, four volumes ; Naval 
War of 1812, History of New York City, History 
of the Royal Navy (being the sixth volume of a 
large English work and dealing with the British 
Navy in the war of 1812), The Rough Riders, The 
Philippines (one volume each) 9 

Biographies: Of Cromwell, Benton and Gouverneur 
Morris 3 

Science: The Deer Family; Life Histories of African 
Game Animals (two volumes) ; Through the Bra- 
zilian Wilderness 4 

Political and Literary Essays and Sketches 13 

Narratives and Sketches of Ranch Life, and Hunting 
Experiences 13 

Autobiography 1 

43 

24 



INTRODUCTION 

It was a topic of conversation in North Dakota in the 
eighties, that he brought over a freight-car load of books 
with him and worked there in winter evenings on his 
** Winning of the West." 

Of his quahty as a nature-lover and observer, let John 
Burroughs speak. Describing a trip with Roosevelt 
through Yellowstone Park in the spring of 1903, he says : 
**A woman * * wrote me to protest against the hunt- 
ing, and hoped I would teach the President to love the 
animals as much as I did — as if he did not love them 
much more, because his love is founded upon knowledge, 
and because they had been a part of his life. * * The 
President said: ''I will not fire a gun in the park; then I 
shall have no explanations to make. * * The Presi- 
dent suddenly jumped out, and with his soft hat * * 
captured a mouse that was running along over the ground 
near us. * * He wanted it for Dr. Merriam, on the 
chance that it might be a new species. While we all went 
fishing in the afternoon, the President skinned his mouse, 
and prepared the pelt to be sent to Washington. It was 
done as neatly as a professed taxidermist would have 
done it. This was the only game the President killed in 
the park. * * It turned out not to be a new species, 
as it should have been, but a species new to the park. 
* * His instincts as a naturalist * * lie back of all 
his hunting expeditions, and in a large measure * * 
prompt them. Certain it is that his hunting records con- 
tain more live natural history than any similar records 
known to me, unless it be those of Charles St. John, the 
Scotch naturalist-sportsman. * * The chief qualifica- 
tion of a born observer is an alert, sensitive, objective 
type of mind, and this Eoosevelt has in a pre-eminent 

25 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

degree." ("Camping vdih Roosevelt," pp. 6-41-66-7- 
103.) 

And here we may remember his great constituency of 
jvoung people. As the "Tribune" of his native city said: 
"Millions who have no spokesmen to make articulate 
their emotions, who lack words to express their grief, 
mourn Theodore Roosevelt surely quite as sincerely as 
those who fill papers with their tributes and draw up res- 
olutions of regret. Among these mute mourners are the 
boys of America. In their Pantheon Theodore Roosevelt, 
hero of San Juan, mighty hunter, slayer of lion, bear, 
wolf, and panther, explorer, occupied a throne more 
exalted than any mythical hero. 

"He was the eternal boy. His were the boy's enthu- 
siasms and unlimited capacity for swift movement of 
body and brain. And the boys shall mourn the passing of 
this full-colored, virile man long after grief has faded 
from older and colder hearts and minds, untouched by 
the eternal dawn." 

He published over a book a year, besides administer- 
ing all these offices, leading these public movements, and 
rearing a family of children. 

Here are some of his literary titles : 

Washington's Maxim (Address, U. S. Naval College, 
June, 1897): "To be Prepared for War is the Most 
Effectual Means to Promote Peace." 

"The War of America the Unready." (1913.) 

"Speak Softly— and Carry a Big Stick— You Will Go 
Far." 

"Our Poorer Brother." 

"The Strenuous Life." 

"The Square Deal." 

"Fear God and Take Your Own Part." 

26 



INTRODUCTION 

' ' Realizable Ideals. ' ' 

* ' Applied Idealism. ' ' 

'* A Book Lover's Holiday in the Open." 

' ' Ranch Life and Hunting Trail. ' ' 

"The New Nationalism." 

"The Peace of Righteousness." 

"We Stand at Armageddon and We Battle for the 
Lord." 

When he was born 83.9 per cent of our people lived on 
farms or in rural homes. Railways and other instru- 
mentalities and influences drew the people to the cities. 
When he became President, although the total population 
had more than doubled, the rural population had fallen to 
59.5 per cent of the whole. And with the urbanizing 
tendency came also the tendency to make each man part 
of a machine. Roosevelt, city born and bred, realized the 
need of conserving the farms and forests, the fauna and 
flora, the waters and minerals, the natural resources, and 
the men, women, and children of the land. 

As Governor of New York, he brought together in the 
Executive Chamber at Albany, a conference of forty of 
the best guides and woodsmen of the Adirondacks, and 
initiated a program of forest, stream, and game preserva- 
tion, and the propagation of food fish and sporting fish. 
"The game wardens in the forests must be woodsmen, 
and they should have no outside business. " * * " The 
State should not permit within its limits, factories to 
make bird skins or bird feathers into articles of ornament 
or wearing apparel." * * "A primeval forest is a 
great sponge which absorbs and distills the rain water. 
And when it is destroyed the result is apt to be an alter- 
nation of flood and drought;" — said his message to the 
New York Legislature in January, 1900. As President he 

27 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

found Gifford Pinchot already in office as head of the in- 
fant Forestry Bureau, retained him there throughout his 
two presidential terms, and left him there. In Roose- 
velt's first message to Congi-ess, December 3rd, 1901, he 
said: "The forest and water problems are perhaps the 
most vital internal problems of the United States. ' ' June 
17, 1902, the Land Reclamation Act was passed, under 
which during his term of office over 3,000,000 acres (an 
area approximating that of Connecticut) were reclaimed, 
irrigated, and made productive. 

February 1, 1905, the Act was passed on his recom- 
mendation transferring the National Forests from the 
Interior Department, where they had been treated as part 
of the general public lands, to the Department of Agri- 
culture, classifying them as part of the cultivated re- 
sources of the United States. 

In 1907, the Government published sixty-one bulletins 
of Forestry, with a total of over 1,000,000 copies dis- 
tributed to the people (compared with three bulletins and 
82,000 copies in 1901). The Forestry Bureau under his 
direction secured the publication of bulletins of scientific 
forestry facts in 50,000,000 copies of newspapers per 
month, at a total expense of $6,000 a year. The area of 
National Forests was increased from forty-three millions 
to one hundred and ninety-four millions of acres (303,125 
square miles, an increase of 235,937 square miles, com- 
pared with the area of the German states, 208,780 square 
miles). His water power policy required grants of such 
power on the public domain, in the National Forests and 
on navigable streams, to be for limited periods, with pro- 
tection for navigation, under Federal regulation, and 
requiring payment for value received. 

His forest preserve policy has been decided valid by 

28 



INTRODUCTION 

the Supreme Court of the United States (220 U. S. 
506, 523). 

President Roosevelt put new life into the Government. 
As he had put new life into the Municipal Government of 
New York City, and into the State Government of the 
Empire State, he did the same in fuller measure for the 
Nation. 

He realized the need of conserving the achievements 
and institutions of the past, of keeping the governmental 
mind open to new ideas, and ready to adopt new methods 
and enter new fields of governmental action, when the 
need for it was shown. He conserved the fruits of the 
past while planting for the future. 

He realized the need of new light from the advice of 
competent men who were not parts of the Government, 
who were not walled in by official habit and routine, and 
who saw things from the viewpoint of up-to-date busi- 
ness, and with the trained experience of specialists. When 
the world war came, this example was to some extent fol- 
lowed, and where followed, proved of immeasurable value. 
He initiated the practice of appointing unpaid voluntary 
commissions; and appointed and received the aid of six 
such commissions in the six years 1903-1909, viz: Com- 
missions on Organization of Government Scientific "Work 
(Charles D. Walcott, Chairman) ; on Department 
Methods (Charles H. Keep, Chairman) ; on Public 
Lands ; on Inland Waterways ; on Country Life ; and on 
National Conservation. These commissions rendered 
great service in promoting the adoption of modern 
methods ; in opening the eyes of the nation to the fact that 
even its natural resources were not inexhaustible; that 
our continental system of rivers should be conserved and 
developed as a unit for transportation, for climatic stabil- 

29 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

ization, and as a by-product, for water-power develop- 
ment; that our forests and mines and soils were the treas- 
uries of the future; that undiscriminating exploitation 
meant national impoverishment; that the farmers by iso- 
lation were handicapped in securing needed labor, in 
securing expression and recognition of their needs — and 
that where those needs coincided with national needs it 
was proper governmental policy to ascertain and seek to 
satisfy them. 

The new life which he put into our municipal, state 
and national governments was in part the consequence, 
in part the guiding influence, and in part the source, of 
mighty movements for the regeneration of public life in 
America. He blazed a new trail through the complexities 
of modern life. It was a trail of applied idealism, applied 
democracy. ''It is better," he wrote, "for the Govern- 
ment to help a poor man make a li\'ing for his family than 
to help a rich man make more profit for his company." 
It led to the movement for overcoming what he called the 
''human deficit." In this term human deficit he grouped 
occupational diseases, child labor, overwork and prema- 
ture exhaustion, economic dependence of women, indus- 
trial accidents, inadequate wages, involuntary unemploy- 
ment, illiteracy, and impoverished old age. These are the 
evils to be overcome. He led the pioneers and blazed the 
trail leading to the conservation and enlargement of the 
common life of the people. And as he initiated the move- 
ment for efficiency in the work of governmental depart- 
ments, so he initiated the movement for efficiency in every 
field of public work. This has grown into a general move- 
ment for efficiency in industry, in education, in the 
charitable and penal institutions, and in the higher activi- 

30 



INTRODUCTION 

ties of the community, including those of philanthropy 
and religion. 

Beginning with the attempt to cut out the circumlo- 
cution office from the national Government, and extending 
through the political and industrial life as an eliminator 
of waste, the movement extended to the salvaging of the 
human unit itself. Wasted vitality, mutilated lives and 
impoverished progeny were objects of his anxious concern 
and vigorous efforts to overcome. He saw even more 
clearly that competition is war; that unregulated, unre- 
stricted competition is ruinous ; that the civil laws which 
were built up around the maxim, * * competition is the life 
of trade," belonged to the period of isolation and scat- 
tered development; that those laws had served a useful 
purpose; but that society, industrial and economic, had 
outgrown those conditions; that a time comes in every 
growing community where competition is the death of 
trade ; that unfair competition is destructive ; that regu- 
lation to prevent such unfairness is an immediate 
requisite; that growth and increase are the natural 
rewards of excellence ; that great size is not a wrong in 
business; that not bigness but badness was what called 
for repression ; that combination is the step beyond com- 
petition; and that both competition and combination of 
industries need public regulation and supervision with 
ceaseless vigilance. 

To the statesmen of our centennial period, who loved 
the glorious record of our unparalleled prosperity, who 
on one side promoted broad construction and rejoiced in 
the old flag and liberal appropriations, and who on the 
other stood for strict construction and home rule, and 
between whom were waged the tariff and currency 
debates (all of which have their most important places 

31 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

in governmental life), these new ideas were like new vdne 
in old bottles. 

It will ever remain true that the governmental 
machine cannot stop for repairs ; that it must go on oper- 
ating and renewing at the same time. Men who can do 
what Roosevelt did are indispensable when the critical 
period of renewal during operation is upon u'fe. 

** Speak softly — and carry a big stick; you will go 
far," was his counsel and his practice. He said this of 
the Monroe Doctrine, and styled a large and efficient navy 
the big stick. Timid souls, and Mr. and Mrs. Grundys, 
and opponents of change, saw the big stick. They didn't 
always heed his soft speech. He went far, farther, higher 
and better — beyond what his best friend hoped or his 
most determined opponent feared. Such people no more 
comprehend him than a fly on St. Peter's dome, poising 
for a moment on its downmost rim, comprehends the 
greatness of that majestic creation of Michael Angelo. 
And they did not disturb him. 

In 1884 ''at the Chicago Convention," says our states- 
man, diplomat, university president, Andrew D. ^Vhite, 
** though he was in a small minority" (and at the age of 
25, the youngest man in the convention) ''nothing 
daunted him. As he stood upon a bench and addressed 
the chairman, there came from the galleries on all sides a 
howl and yell, "Sit down! Sit do^Ti!" Avith whistling 
and cat-calls. All to no purpose; the mob might as well 
have tried to whistle down a bronze statue. Roosevelt, 
slight in build as he then was, was greater than all that 
crowd combined. He stood quietly through it all, defied 
the mob, and finally obliged them to listen to him." 
(White, Autobiography, p. 205). It was in this speech 
that he opposed the conventional method of a mere "call 

32 



INTRODUCTION 

of states*' and demanded a roll call of individual dele- 
gates. ''Let each man stand accountable to those whom 
he represents for his vote. " (Tuesday, June 3, 1884, sup- 
porting the colored man, John R. Lynch, for temporary 
Chairman). The new precedent he thus helped to estab- 
lish has been followed ever since. 

Such men make mistakes — otherwise they would not 
be men. Roosevelt made mistakes, and looking backward, 
he frequently publicly so declared. 

''A friend of his one day took him to task for some 
mistake he had made in one of his appointments. "My 
dear sir," replied the President, ''where you know of one 
mistake I have made, I know of ten." (Burroughs, pp. 
22-3.) 

He saw large; and when his "speak softly" was 
turned away and disregarded, he spoke loudly with a 
magnifying — even exaggerating — trumpet. He was 
intensely human, and he was intensely loved. He was so 
human that we couldn't help loving him, even when we 
were against him. "Dancing down the way of life he 
came, with life and love and courage and fun stickin' out 
all over him." 

"The dandy copper of the Broadway squad," was 
first applied to him as New York Legislator in 1882, and 
again when he was President of the Police Board in 1895. 
There is a mark of widespread recognition, of fine quality 
and good heart that comes to few public men — that came 
to him — the affectionate nickname. He always was and 
always will be ' ' Teddy, dear. " " Teddy ' ' was his college 
nickname, which stayed with him through life; and he 
became "Teddy dear" to all America. Beautiful was his 
friend's tribute in the Chicago Evening Post in 1916, the 
day after the Republican Convention took Hughes in his 

33 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

place: **Ah, Teddy, dear — and did you hear — the news 
that's goin' 'round? They say you've gone from off the 
stage, that strange cold men whom we respect but love 
not, must be our meat for all the days to come. Our 
hearts are broke. We need you every minute. Ah, the 
fun of you and the glory of you ! Ah, Teddy, dear — we 
love you now and always." 

In every city, town, and hamlet, there were men of 
vision, in advance of their time, men brooding over plans 
of national aid for the emigrant; men like Buffalo Jones,' 
striving to save the buffalo; men like Gifford Pinchot, 
striving to save the forests ; men like Father Curran and 
John Mitchell, trying to help the miners ; men like Booker 
Washington, stri\^ng to uplift the colored people. 

In Roosevelt they found a leader and a friend. They 
flocked to him naturally, and found a tonic stimulant in 
his genial courage and effective leadership. 

He knew that in big business, in big politics, in gov- 
ernment, and in international diplomacy, we must still 
sight along the line of the Ten Commandments. 

There were men with him and against him that for- 
got it. 

Germany forgot it. 

Sometimes politicians and big business men forgot it. 

Roosevelt remembered it. Roosevelt stands for the 
revival of conscience in American public life. Theodore, 
as we know, means ' ' Gift of God. ' ' Truly he was the gift 
of God to the American people. 

He remembered that governments are instituted to 
secure the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness ; and that our Constitution was ordained to promote 
the general welfare, and to secure the blessings of liberty 
to ourselves and posterity. 

34 



INTRODUCTION 

Higher laws than those of economics control the 
development of a nation's life and expression of its con- 
sciousness. That development and expression must be 
true to the line of the Ten Commandments. That develop- 
ment and expression at times seem to sleep a long, long 
sleep. Suddenly bursting seams and lines of growth show 
everywhere, like a century plant as it bursts in bloom; 
and the flower and fruiting of a great period is seen in 
the career of a man instinct with the life — the hope — the 
need — the ideals — the aspirations of his people. Such a 
man was Roosevelt. Born rich and gentle and citified, he 
sought the country and the wild. He became poor, and he 
loved the common people. He ate and drank with pub- 
licans and sinners; and the common people heard him 
gladly. 

Riches hamper and obstruct; they add power to the 
right man ; but at the start they dull the spirit. One hun- 
dred poor young men rise for one rich young man. Roose- 
velt found in aristocratic birth an invidious bar. But he 
was the exceptional one 

Who breaks his birth's invidious bar, 

And grasps the skirts of happy chance, 

And breasts the blows of circumstance, 
And grapples with his evil star; 

Who makes by force his merit known, 
And lives to clutch the golden keys. 

To mold a mighty state's decrees, 

And shape the whisper of the throne; 

And moving up from high to higher, 

Becomes on Fortune's crowning slope 
The pillar of a people's hope, 

The center of a world's desire; 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Yet feels as in a pensive dream, 

"When all his active powers are still, 

A distant dearness in the hill, 

A secret sweetness in the stream. 

God's finger touched him and he slept. He is laid in 
the grave. Those who fought him stood in tears beside 
his tomb. Who now shall bend the bow of the mighty 
Ulysses? WTio again shall hurl Achilles' spear? Who 
now shall wield the sword of Arthur — the bright Excal- 
ibur? 

This was the Happy Warrior — he 

That every man at arms would wish to be. 

Ocean tides from the Atlantic and Pacific that meet 
in inlets of his creation at Panama shall chant his 
requiem. The murmur of innumerable trees in the 
National Forests that he saved shall forever sing his 
threnody. Waterfalls that he dedicated to freedom on 
every mountain side shall perpetually cast rainbows into 
the sunlight as tributes to his praise. 

Already plans are making for his monument. A tablet 
marks his victory in the park of San Juan Hill. Well 
might there be a Roosevelt Park in every town, and a 
Roosevelt Hill in every range, and his name be inscribed 
on the walls of every student society, political club, and 
Boy Scouts' hall. 

But we who remain must remember what he exempli- 
fied. Better far that each of us, in his measure, be a 
H\'ing remembrancer. Beauty and truth and goodness 
and courage are not dead. They spring eternal in the 
breast of man. As each new springtime heaps the 
orchards full of bloom and scent, so the eternal spirit of 

36 



INTRODUCTION 

goodness brings to flower and fruit each year a gronp of 
heroes and of leaders. Like soldiers in the phalanx, w© 
must close ranks and go forward, remembering 

The stubborn spearmen still make good 

Their dark, impenetrable wood, 
Each stepping where his comrade stood, 

The instant that he fell. 

It is right to mourn the passing of Theodore Roose- 
velt. It is right to rejoice in the rich legacy of patriotic 
ideals he has left us. But it is rather for us, the living, 
to be here dedicated to the unfinished work he and his 
associates have thus far so nobly advanced. 

We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord. 
Armageddon, in the Apocalypse, was the field of battle 
between the Faithful and True and the unclean spirits of 
all the world, led by the Beast. 

Three months ago, Armageddon was in Flanders. One 
month ago it was in the streets of Moscow and Petrograd. 
The Beast had taken on the form of Bolshevism. In this 
new disguise, he has now moved on to Berlin; and we 
learn that the Bolshevist movement is spreading west- 
ward to Dresden and Leipsic and Hamburg and Brussels. 

Well may we set our house in order against it ; for, like 
the influenza, it may spread even to our doors. We 
should take courage from Roosevelt, and follow his 
example, and stand for law and order. Let us say, 
''Though we walk through the valley of the shadow of 
death, we will fear no evil. ' ' We will fear God and take 
our own part. For we stand at Armageddon and we bat- 
tle for the Lord. 

And here we may fitly end with the lines of another 
nature lover, Henry David Thoreau : 

37 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Ye skies, drop gently round his breast, 

And be his corselet blue ; 
Ye earth, receive his lance in rest, 

His faithful charger you. 

Ye stars, his spearheads in the sky, 

His arrow-tips ye are ; 
We see the routed foemen fly; 

His bright spears fixed are. 

Give him an angel for a foe. 

Fix now a place and time, 
And straight to meet him he will go 

Above the starry chime. 

And with their clashing bucklers' clang, 
The heavenly spheres shall ring. 

While bright the Northern Lights shall hang 
Beside their tourneying. 

And if she lose her champion true, 

Tell heaven not despair, 
For he will be her champion new. 

Her fame he will repair. 

* Tis sweet to hear of heroes dead, 

To know them still alive ; 
But sweeter if we earn their bread, 

And in us they survive. 



^iL. ^'lJ/a^ J 



Chicago, January, 1919. 



38 



CHAPTER I 
1S5S— 1919 



By Major-General Leonard Wood, U. S. A. 

Theodore Roosevelt's services were never more 
needed by our country than today. His death coming at 
this time, perhaps the greatest crisis in our national life, 
is a calamity. 

In the consideration of the great issues of the moment 
his broad experience, clear judgment, good sense, his 
comprehension of the issues, and his almost intuitive 
understanding of the sentiments of our people are all 
needed, as is his conscientious and fearless leadership. 
Theodore Roosevelt's voice has at times seemed to be 
the voice of one crying in the wilderness, but whether 
listened to for the moment or not, his words have always 
rung true, voicing sound policies and pointing out safe 
lines of procedure. 

He perhaps more than any man in public life appre- 
ciated that true democracy means equality, not only of 
opportunity and privilege but also of obligation; that 
there can be no true democracy which does not welcome 
honest criticism and practice frank and fearless pub- 
licity. No one knew better than he that a democracy 

39 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

shnnning publicity, resenting criticism and striving to 
limit free expression of opinion on the part of press or 
people is a democracy in danger, if not a democracy 
dying. 

His voice has been raised on many issues, sometimes 
in commendation, sometimes in criticism, but always 
with a purpose single to the people 's welfare. He hated 
shams, was intolerant of weakness, and feared nothing 
so much as failure to do his whole duty as he saw it. 
Many people misjudged him, but no one who knew him 
intimately ever failed to recognize that, right or wrong, 
his desire was for the good of our people and the uphold- 
ing of sound national policy. He felt that both the indi- 
vidual and the nation should not only be prompt to voice 
its disapproval of injustice and wrong-doing, but should 
be ready to back its righteous protest ^ith force if need 
be. In other words, it was not enough to protest against 
wrong; we must also use everything we have of force 
and strength to correct it. 

It was my good fortune to have known him long and 
intimately, and to have had an opportunity to see him 
under stress and strain not only in times of war but in 
times of peace. He was a splendid example of clean 
and upright living and of strenuous endeavor. He 
believed that men should have not only clean, sound 
bodies, but also clean souls. As a leader he was fearless, 
direct, and compelling. As a subordinate he was frank, 
and while distinguishing between civility and subordina- 
tion was always a loyal and conscientious subordinate. 
He gave his opinion frankly and honestly, and if his 
chief differed with him he accepted without discussion 
and lived up to the orders he received. 

40 



i 



IN MEMORIAM 

I happen to have been his military commander during 
the Spanish- American War, and in all my experience in 
the army of something over thirty years I have not come 
in contact with an officer who more fully represented 
ideal military subordination of the best type. Frank to 
express his honest views when called for, as a soldier 
always should be, fearless in looking out for the interests 
of his subordinates, he nevertheless was prompt and 
unfailing in carrying out the policy agreed upon. He 
dropped without effort all that prestige and influence 
which had surrounded him as Assistant Secretary of the 
Navy, a position which he had filled with ability and in 
which he had exercised a very great measure of power, to 
assume the duties and responsibilities of Lieutenant- 
Colonel of the First U. S. Volunteer Cavalry, or, as it 
came to be known, the Rough Riders. 

The interests of his men were his own. He realized 
and lived up to the definition given by Socrates to 
Xenophon of the ideal officer as one who looks after the 
welfare of his soldiers. He instinctively appreciated that 
the less the soldier is able to protect himself because of 
his subordinate position, the more the officer is under 
obligation to look after his interests and welfare. He 
was a brave officer, never thinking of his own life, but 
always of his objective, and attaining it with as little loss 
as possible among his own men. He defended his coun- 
try in war as his sons have done in this war, and as he 
endeavored to do. Keen always to practice what he 
preached, he sent his sons cheerfully to the front, and 
having failed in his own efforts to go, turned everything 
he had of moral and spiritual strength into an effort to 
build up a vigorous prosecution of the war, realizing that 
when you have to strike it is humane to strike hard. 

41 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

He saw \\^th a clear \dsion that the war was as much 
America's war as it was the war of France and the 
European Allies. He saw the far-reaching danger of 
German success. He realized that the quicker we were 
in, the fewer men would die, the less there would be of 
opportunity for that kind of upheaval and unrest which 
comes when wars are too long drawn out. He realized 
that we must meet the organized strength of wrong- 
doing with the disciplined and united force of right. He 
was a believer in preparedness. He knew that had we 
been ready to do our part in the great struggle, our pro- 
test would have been listened to and there would have 
been no war ; but once the war was on and all these things 
were as water that had gone under the bridge, with his 
eyes to the front he did everything possible to aid in a 
vigorous conduct of the war. 

He was, after all, a very human man, impetuous and 
strong, with the defects and the strong points which come 
with such a character. His personal characteristics were 
charming. He was an embodiment of gentleness and 
consideration with subordinates and those in the humbler 
walks of life. If an engineer brought him safely through 
a hard run, he never failed personally to express his 
appreciation. There was always that instinctive desire 
to make those with whom he came in contact feel that 
they had done him a good turn, that they had been of real 
service, to impress upon them the dignity of labor and 
that the way really to dignify labor was to do one's task, 
no matter how humble, cheerfully and thoroughly. A 
thousand times I have seen him win the lasting affection 
and regard of those with whom he came in contact by 
these little simple human acts of appreciation and kind- 
ness. With a snob, a cad, a faker, he was brusque, direct, 
and intolerant, as all honest men should be. 

42 



IN MEMORIAM 

No man had a finer family life. No man was more 
devoted to home and family, or more intolerant of loose 
living or of vulgar thinking. I never knew him to tell a 
suggestive story, and I have never known anyone who 
really knew him and understood him even to attempt to 
tell one in his presence. He loved Nature and understood 
her varying moods. He loved the wild places of the 
world and the animals and the birds which inhabited 
them, and he understood them to an extent that few men 
ever have. He enjoyed keenly a hard bout with the 
broadswords, giving and taking in the spirit of fair play 
and good sportsmanship. Stiff rides across country, 
long walks and hard runs through the ups and downs 
of the banks of the Potomac, and the rough bits of Rock ■ 
Creek Park, were sources of keen enjoyment and served 
to keep him in good condition, vigorous in body and clear 
in thought. 

He dearly loved to gather his own children and those 
of his friends and take them for long tramps along the 
river banks and through the bits of dark forest in the 
park, piloting them across the streams and around bits 
of rocky cliffs, across little valleys, using the trunks of 
fallen trees as bridges, and bringing them in toward 
nightfall through the woods. These excursions were to 
the children like voyages into an unknown land. The 
streams they crossed were rivers and the bits of forest 
were the unknown. These tramps were always filled 
with httle lessons and interesting talks by which he 
taught the children things he knew would interest them 
and would build up in them a love of Nature and an 
understanding of many things. 

He measured a man's Americanism by the way he 
lived and measured up to American ideals. With him 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

no man could be an American and something else. He 
saw in universal training for national service something 
which would fuse the diverse elements which come into 
and make up much of our population into one homogene- 
ous mass of Americanism. He saw in this training all 
together, shoulder to shoulder, rich and poor, newcomer 
and native-born, an influence toward better understand- 
ing and truer appreciation, a democracy of service, a 
community of purpose, with its brotherhood of man. He 
saw in it the building up of a truer and better citizenship. 
He always stood ready to sacrifice everything for his 
country. He understood that none are fit to live who are 
afraid to die. He was a many-sided character, but all 
sides were good, as difficult to give a word picture of as it 
is to write a description of the Grand Canyon or any 
great and complex thing. 

We have lost a great leader in the crisis of the 
nation's life. He has left us in his writings, in his work, 
in his precepts and ideals, clear guides for the future. 
Though his voice is silent, his spirit lives and will live to 
stir us to effort in times of public danger and to stimulate 
our righteous efforts for good government, fair dealing, 
and right living at all times. Wise leader, true patriot, 
devoted husband and father, the best type of American, 
such was Theodore Roosevelt. We can ill spare him in 
these days. In his last message to us he has left an 
inspiration and preached a lesson which we must heed. 




IN MEMORIAM 

AN UNADULTERATED AMERICAN 

By Chauncey M. Depew, former United States 
Senator from New York 

The whole public career of Theodore Roosevelt is 
lined with monuments in beneficent legislation. He was 
born two years before the outbreak of the Civil War, 
and was President of the United States when it was 
necessary to have a united country in support of policies 
for the benefit of the whole United States. For this 
destiny he was fortunate in his ancestors. His father, 
of Dutch and Scotch ancestry, was a leading citizen of 
New York, and one of the most useful and prominent 
citizens of the North ; his mother was from Georgia, and 
represented the best blood and traditions of the South. 
So he could appeal, as no President had been able to 
since the Civil War, to all sections of the country, North, 
South, East, and West. Harvard gave him an Eastern 
culture, and ranch life on the Western plains brought 
him in contact and close association with those pioneers 
who have discovered, developed, and peopled our terri- 
tories from the Mississippi to the Pacific. 

He inherited a small trust estate, the income of which 
was not sufficient for more than a quarter of his expenses 
of living, and yet it had the singular effect of destroying 
all ambition to accumulate a fortune. He always felt 
sure that by his own exertions he could so supplement 
this limited income as to meet all requirements and at 
the same time have the income as an anchor which in 
great stress or necessity would prevent his drifting to 
want. 

His activities were during the period of the greatest 
industrial development which this country has ever 

45 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

known, a period in which masterful men developed in an 
imprecedented way our natural resources, our manufac- 
turing, and our transportation, with results that were 
enormously beneficial to communities and multitudes of 
people, and yielded enormous returns to the architects. 
Colonel Roosevelt admired these men and their achieve- 
ments, but always looked upon them and what they did 
from the standpoint of public safety and public service. 
He had no fear of big business, and to his mind the 
bigger the better, if the best results for all could be had 
that way. At the same time, if in his judgment the 
process was becoming dangerous to the public welfare 
because of its tendency to monopoly, he became at once 
its enemy. 

I remember as if it were yesterday the commencement 
of his career. From the beginning his ambitions were for 
public life and public ser\dce. A Republican district 
leader, forty years ago, came to my office and said, * * We 
have this difficulty in our district. A small part of it is 
composed of what the boys call 'highbrows', living along 
Fifth Avenue and the adjoining streets, while the major 
part of it runs over into sections which are under the 
control of Tammany Hall. To keep our organization 
alive and secure for the boys some recognition in office- 
holding, I have to deal with a very difficult problem. 
These dealings have offended 'highbrows', but we need 
their votes, and especially their contributions. I can 
think of but one way out, and that is to nominate for 
the Legislature a representative of these men of wealth 
and high social position. A^Hiat do you think of young 
Theodore Roosevelt?" Of course, I became enthusiastic 
at once. ''"Well," said this astute leader, "we will have 
a dinner at Delmonico's and bring him out. None of our 

46 



IN MEMORIAM 

organization will attend, none but that class will be 
invited, but I will be in the pantry. I want you to 
preside. ' ' 

The dinner was a great success. Young Eoosevelt 
was at that time about 22 years old, but he looked much 
younger. He read for about an hour from his manuscript 
to an audience of as hard-headed, practical, and suc- 
cessful men as could be gathered in New York. They 
were tolerant of his emphatic views on the evils of city, 
State, and National Government, and how he would 
correct them, and it is one of the extraordinary things 
in politics that this young man of 22 afterwards, as 
Police Commissioner of New York, as Governor of the 
State of New York, and as President of the United 
States, had the opportunity to carry out these policies 
and to translate them into laws. 

Mr. Roosevelt was one of the few more responsible 
than others for bringing on the Spanish War. It is well 
known that President McKinley did his best to prevent 
it. It was the characteristic of Roosevelt that he never 
asked from others that they volunteer for a dangerous 
enterprise unless he was willing to share in it himself. 
So he raised the ''Rough Riders" regiment, and, by 
gallantry in action, became the foremost figure in the 
Spanish- American War. 

Nothing has impressed me so much as the accidents 
of public life. In business and professional careers, 
brains, industry, and efficiency always tell, but not so in 
politics. The National Convention which met in Phila- 
delphia in 1900 was a unit for the renomination of Mr. 
McKinley, but all at sea about the Vice-President. 
Roosevelt's independent and masterly administration of 
New York as Governor had made him so powerful that 

47 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

not to renominate him was to court defeat, and to renomi- 
nate him was equally dangerous on account of the hos- 
tility of the local organizations all over the State. So 
there was a general assent to his being put on the ticket 
with McKinley for Vice-President. Mr. Roosevelt 
strenuously opposed it. He said, "The Vice-Presidency 
is a tomb, and I will not be buried." So after further 
debate we nominated Roosevelt again ; he again declined, 
and then I declared the meeting adjourned to prevent 
further action. The next morning he accepted. This was 
the crisis of his career. 

Great and successful leadership requires many qual- 
ities. I have known, beginning with Lincoln, with con- 
siderable intimacy, every President of the United States. 
None of them had all these qualities except Mr. Roosevelt. 
He was a born leader of men. His industry was phe- 
nomenal, but it w^as that intelligent work which knew 
where to find w^hat he wanted, and his marvelous intelli- 
gence grasped, absorbed, and utilized this material with 
the precision of a machine. 

He loved companionship and found time to enjoy 
his friends. When that friend left he had contributed 
all he possessed to the materials useful to this great 
Executive. He might be a college professor, a United 
States Senator, a foreign Ambassador, a State Governor, 
a Justice of the Supreme Court, a cowboy from the 
ranches, a hunter from the mountains, a traveler from 
overseas, — all were equally welcome and all equally 
contributors. 

I was in the Senate during the whole of his Presi- 
dency, and saw him nearly every day. It was a delight 
to \isit the Executive Office or to meet him in the closer 
associations of the White House. He was the most out- 

48 




i/.u-^ 




THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND HIS GALLANT SONS 

Top — Lieut. Quentin Roosevelt, Killed in Aerial Combat in France, 1918; Left, 

Capt. Archibald Roosevelt; Right, Lieut.-Col. Theodore Roosevelt, 

Jr.; Bottom, Capt. Kermit Roosevelt. 

— Copyright, A. Thomas. 




Tlieodore Roosevelt in 1918, when five members of his immediate family, including four 

sons, were in war service. From one of his last photographs regarded by 

the family as the best likeness of the Colonel. 



IN MEMORIAM 

spoken of public men. As I was entering Ms room one 
morning, a Senator was coming out. This Senator had 
made some request of the President which had angered 
him. He shouted to me so the Senator and everybody 
else could hear him: '*Do you know that man?" I 
answered, * ' Yes, he is a colleague of mine in the Senate. ' ' 
**But," the President shouted, "he is a crook." Subse- 
quent events proved the President correct ; the man came 
within the clutches of the criminal law. 

I never knew such an omnivorous reader. He mas- 
tered all literature, past and present. Several times I 
called his attention to a book which had been sent me 
and was just on sale. He had already read it. 

He was intensely human. He had no airs, nor fads, 
nor frills. His cordiality was infectious, his friendship 
never failed. No man of his generation has so long held 
public esteem and confidence. His work in the world 
was great and greatly done. It is a commonplace when 
a great man dies to say, '*It is not for his contemporaries 
to pass judgment upon him. That must be left to 
posterity and to the historian after the passions of his 
time have been allayed." There are only two exceptions 
to this maxim : one is Washington, the other is Roosevelt. 
With this magnificent fighter, this reckless crusader, this 
hard-hitter, the world is stilled and awed when the news 
of his death is flashed over wires and cables, but the 
instant voice of friend and enemy is the same. All 
recognize the purity of his motives, the unselfishness of 
his work, and his unadulterated Americanism. 



New York, 

January, 1919. 

43 



(:i^^ou<AAiLC^(hA^-^s^^ 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

By Hon. Joseph G. Cannon, former Speaker, U. S. 
House of Representatives 

President Roosevelt, in 1904, wrote that a man who 
goes into the actual battle of politics ''must stand firmly 
for what he believes, and yet he must realize that political 
action, to be effective, must be the joint action of many 
men, and that he must sacrifice somewhat of his own 
opinions to those of his associates if he ever hopes to 
see his desires take practical shape." 

Throughout Roosevelt's administration, I had many 
conversations with him on many subjects, and I found 
him ready to follow that platform of political action, 
presenting his own ideas forcibly and earnestly and 
giving fair consideration to the ideas and arguments of 
others. The great volume of important and progressive 
legislation enacted during the Roosevelt administration 
was accomplished in that way, by cooperation and 
coordination of the legislative and executive departments 
of the government, and by the sacrifice of some opinions 
on both sides. That cooperation made the Roosevelt 
administration a great Republican administration and a 
great American administration — two synonymous terms. 
That administration defeated Bolshevism sugar-coated 
with Bryan's rhetoric; and such cooperation will again 
defeat Bolshevism in the name of pure democracy. 




Washington, D. C, 
January, 1919. 



50 



IN MEMORIAM 

By Col. Henry Watterson 

No one knew Theodore Roosevelt better than I; cer- 
tainly no one goes back farther in a knowledge of him, 
for that knowledge takes me to a time preceding his birth, 
when his mother and my mother, old and very dear 
friends, were much together, the Roosevelts living at the 
family homestead down about Broadway and Thirteenth 
Street, New York, what was then the Union Place Hotel 
near by, though Theodore was born in the Twentieth 
Street house to which just before his birth his parents 
had removed. He was all sorts of a boy. Indeed, like 
the boy in the play who never grew up, he remained a 
boy all his life. He was wayward, willful, affectionate ; 
never vicious, though mischievous; wholly loveable and 

trying. 

* * 

From the first he essayed the impossible and oddly 
enough often got away with it. Frail of body and poor 
of sight, he wanted to be a hunter. Without military 
training, or natural bent, he wanted to be a soldier. He 
possessed rare aptitude for politics, on which he did not 
pride himself. His passion was for getting at the heart 
of things — for hitting the bull's eye — for playing life as 
if it were a game of ''shinny," rushing in among the 
kickers and bringing away the ball in triumph. He pre- 
ferred his muscle to his wit. He was a perfect cross of 
the Roosevelt upon the Bulloch. In him met, commingled, 
and flowed the blood of the Dutchman and the Cavalier, 
the one restraining if it did not temper the other. Theo- 
dore was by no means an uncalculating visionary. In 
many ways he was exceedingly practical. 

Personally, no man could be worthier. His domestic 
relations were ideal; he was the best of husbands and 

51 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

fathers ; patient only, but very patient, as a paterfamilias. 
A cleaner man never lived. No dirty or doubtful dollar 
ever touched his palm. In this he resembled his uncle, 
his mother's brother, the Confederate Admiral, who fitted 
out and sent the South 's privateer cruisers to sea, han- 
dled milhons of Confederate money in England, and ^vith 
a half million of this still in his possession at the close 
of the War of Sections, turned it over to the United States 
and died a pauper. 

Although Teddy and I agreed about nothing — fell 
surely apart when an issue arose — the differences cut no 
figure in our personal relations. When he came to his 
kingdom he often sought to be good to me. The surviv- 
ing guests at Robert Collier's famous dinner will recall 
an illustrative incident. I had said in response to a 
toast, "You gentlemen fancy that there have been ruc- 
tions between Theodore Roosevelt and myself, but let 
me say to you that in the very plenitude of his power 
he offered me one of the greatest honors within his gift." 
Then he called out, "Tell me about that, Marse Henry," 
and I continued : 

"I was at dinner with my family at Willard's Hotel 
when General Corbin came over and said in his abrupt 
way, 'Will you accept the chairmanship of the Board of 
Visitors for West Point next Junef 

" '"VV^iat do you want me for ? ' said I. 'It is the Acad- 
emy's centenary,' he answered, 'and we are looking for 
an orator.' 'Corbin,' I replied, 'you are coming at me in 
a very tempting way; that a ragged old rebel like me 
should be chosen for such a service appeals to my pride 
of country as well as my personal vanity. Give me a 
little time to think it over.' When I thought it over — 

52 



IN MEMORIAM 

honorable and gratifying as it was — I put it from me. A 
presidential election was at hand. The issues were bound 
to be implacable. I had my duty to perform, and if I 
accepted with all that acceptance implied, I could not do 

my duty. So very reluctantly I declined. ' ' 

* * 

I rang all the changes of the third-term issue upon 
him. Among the rest there was a long circumstantial 
story of an old Georgia lady — a life-long friend of his 
mother — whose dream was to see Theodore crowned 
Emperor of America. She had lived in France and was 
a thorough Imperialist and devotee of Louis Napoleon. 
We sat in a garden and she told her story and unfolded 
her hope. I contrived to get into this setting every man- 
ner of persiflage, closing with, ''She passed from the 
moonlight into the house and I said to myself, *If out of 
the mouths of babes and sucklings, why not out of the 
fancy of this crazed old woman of the South?' " 

He answered this by a public statement that he would 
not be the candidate in 1908. When I was next in Wash- 
ington he sent for me. Taking me into a rear room and 
locking the door, he said: ''First, I want to know 
whether that old woman was a real person, or a figment 
of your imagination?" 

I answered that she was a figment of my imagination. 
"But," said I, "you killed her dead as a door nail; why 
didn't you hold back and let us get lots of fun out of it?" 

With a show of impatience he bade me sit down. 

"I don't deny," he continued, "that I have thought 
of it." Then in the frankest manner he went over the 
situation, telling me of some personal and party matters 
I did not know of, and ending, "Now what do you think 
of it?" 

53 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

I said, "Mr. President, you know that I am your 
friend, and I tell you as your friend, that if you go out of 
here the fourth of next March, putting your friend Taft 
in your place, you will make a good third to Washington 
and Lincoln. But if you allow the wild-hog politicians to 
put you up for a third term, they will bring about your 
defeat and make you a second to Burr." 

He arose from his seat and said, '* Henry Watterson, 

I will permit no such thing. If they do it, I will refuse. 

If they do it and adjourn the convention they will have 

to reassemble it, for I will refuse and still refuse." 

* * 

I saw him last but just a while ago when he and Mr. 
Moore, of Pittsburgh, and Edward Riggs, of the New 
York Central, and I had a merry lunch at an uptown hotel 
in New York. For the first time he was beginning to 
show something that looked like years. But he was all 
life and the love of life — his sunny side out — intense 
interest and tremendous grasp vibrating with his gaiety. 

I am deeply and personally distressed by his death, 
though it does not take me by surprise. He gave himself 
no rest. His resources were multifarious, his interests 
many and wide apart. Often his impetuosity did injus- 
tice to his serious parts. As a matter of fact he was an 
insurrecto whom destiny had elevated into a commander. 
He could not help speaking out in meeting, as they say 
in New England. Yet comparing his candor with the 
garrulity of some public men having a reputation for 
prudence, the record vdW show to his credit. Certainly 
he had a way of getting after a rogue and running down 
a rascal, that was often fruitful of good to the country. 

His disappearance in a way clarifies politics on the 
practical and tangible side. It clears the way for a united 

54 



IN MEMOEIAM 

Republican party. He was ever a thorn in the side of 
the machine politicians, though a clever machine politi- 
cian himself. His like will scarcely appear again. No 
leader ever appealed as he did to the young. Had he 
lived he would have cut a wide swath in 1920. His death 
takes much of the complexity and all of the light out of 
the political situation and levels the immediate future 
into the commonplace. 

Henry Watterson. 
Miami, Florida, January 7, 1919. 



By Senator Johnson of California 

(Running Mate of Colonel Roosevelt in 1912} 

The greatest American of our generation has passed 
away. He had a truer vision, a higher courage, a wiser 
statesmanship than any man of our time. I cannot speak 
of him in ordinary terms. To me he had no parallel — 
none approached him in virility or force or profound 
knowledge of varied subjects. He stood alone in great- 
ness of perception, in courage for the right as he saw 
it. I am mourning not only the greatest American, 
a world figure such as time seldom presents, but a 
thoughtful, kindly, affectionate friend. 




Washington, D. C, 
January 6, 1919. 

55 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

THE MAN WHO LOVED HIS JOB 

By Sir John Willison 

President of the Canadian Beconstruction Association. 

There is a cant of democracy as well as a faith of 
democracy. Roosevelt had all the faith and none of the 
cant. He had faith in himself and faith in the people. In 
what he did there was nothing very original. He profited 
greatly by the evangelical sowing of Bryant. He achieved 
by force, by courage, and even by violence. It was said 
of Cavour that he had all the prudence and all the impru- 
dence of the true statesman. To a degree this was true 
of Roosevelt, but it is doubtful if ho ever found pleasure 
in the exercise of prudence. He had many of the qualities 
of those great old builders of the British Empire in the 
outposts of the earth. He would have seized territory, 
overturned effete institutions, established despotic 
authority over subject populations, and by the char- 
acter of his rule have justified despotism to himself and 
probably to those whom he had reduced to subjection. But 
for himself he would not have been thrifty nor ever have 
been astonished at his own moderation. 

In the man there was no pretense. When he was 
told that he must rejoice to be relieved of the duties, 
responsibilities, and perplexities of the Presidency ho 
declared with blunt candor that he had loved his job and 
would be glad to take it on again if the people would 
agree. He would have said with Scott that 

One crowded hour of glorious strife 
Is worth an age without a name. 

There was eternal youth in the soul of Roosevelt. 
One cannot think that he ever would have grown old in 

59 



IN MEMORIAM 

spirit or ever have ''ceased from mental strife" wliile 
there were ''malefactors" to be disciplined and a world to 
be fashioned to his way of thinking. Most of us as we 
grow older become too wise and too cautious. We lose 
the vision. We lose the courage. We lose the virtue of 
rashness and the glory of insolence. With Roosevelt to 
the end there was rashness and the audacity which bor- 
ders upon insolence. There was always in him, as Mr. 
Asquith said of Ireland, "a good deal of rhetorical and 
contingent belligerency." 

It is hard to think that he was chivalrous in his treat- 
ment of Taft, but in method and character they were so 
far removed from each other that conflict was almost 
ine^dtable. He saw Taft trying to do with blundering 
amiabihty and complacent indecision the things he had 
done with energy and arrogance, and he revolted. He 
lacked the last quality of loyalty which was Taft's great 
characteristic and for the possession of which Taft was 
perhaps the weaker and he the stronger. For Roosevelt 
loved the authority which strong men covet. The taste 
of power was the sweetest morsel on his tongue. He 
could command confidence and inspire devotion. In all 
history there is no more wonderful illustration of the 
power of a single man than his bold challenge to a his^ 
toric party and the creation of the Progressive move- 
ment. For that movement represented the power of one 
man and the attraction of one virile personality. More- 
over, if he had lived he probably would have recreated 
and re-established in office the party which he had 
destroyed and under the leader which it had rejected. 
Bolingbroke said of Marlborough, "He was a great man 
and I have forgotten all his faults." There could be no 
truer expression of the feeling of the Republican party 

57 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

towards Roosevelt, and when we think of the long vindic- 
tiveness of a political party towards those who desert 
its standards, the thing that he did has the wonder and 
the mystery of a miracle. 

It is remarkable that Mr. Root and Mr. Taft, who 
held the remnant of the Republican party against Roose- 
velt, should have been his firm allies in urging American 
intervention in the war in Europe. Divided in a domestic 
conflict, they reunited in the great conflict for human 
freedom and led the American people in the path of duty, 
honor, and sacrifice. It ^vill be remembered, too, that in 
the Congressional elections a few months ago Roosevelt 
and Taft signed a common appeal to the party in which 
for so long they had fought as comrades and which had 
suflfered disaster through their differences. Thus at the 
last the bitterness was assuaged and a reconciliation 
declared in the face of the nation. 

History will not deny that Roosevelt had the faults 
of impetuosity, that he was sometimes ungenerous and 
ruthless, and that he sometimes destroyed where it would 
have been better to conserve and improve. But he was 
a man of full blood and robust spirit, with the love 
of adventure in his soul and the love of his kind in 
his heart. He loved the deep bush and the open sky, 
all green and growing things, the kindly earth and 
the fruits thereof, the ships which traveled the wide and 
strange waters, the touch of danger, the open war 
between man and the jungle. He gave to his country far 
more than he received. He struck hard and the blows 
sometimes fell ^^'ildly, but he shattered some idols of clay 
and destroyed some images of the marketplace which 
had been worshipped far too long. 

58 



IN MEMORJAM 

One feels that Kipling could have taken Eoosevelt to 
his soul, for what the one is in vision the other was in 
action. The United States has had greater men, but no 
one braver or more picturesque. He died in his sleep, for 
perhaps even death would have hesitated to take him with 
his head up and his face to the world. So another has 
joined Bryant's innumerable caravan, but not with imme- 
diate expectation of the summons. One wishes that death 
had not been so eager, for Eoosevelt could not have 
believed that his work was finished. But 

Three fragile, sacramental things 
Endure, though all your pomps shall pass, 
A butterjSy's immortal wings, 
A daisy and a blade of grass. 




Toronto, Ontario, 
January, 1919. 

By John Wanamaker, Former Postmaster General 

Not Since Abraham Lincoln Fell Asleep 
has there been in this country such a sorrow as when the 
messages came from 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT'S 
silent home. Like a flash of lightning, it touched the 
whole world. 

The immeasurableness of the loss to America and the 
world at this time is beyond human thought. 

These are days of revelation. A man may be bigger 
than his words. 

59 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

It were well worth while to seek for the real secret 
of Theodore Roosevelt's masterful greatness. 

Was it in the fact that no insincerity lurked behind 

his ever-welcoming smile ? 

# * * 

The piety of Roosevelt's patriotism and citizenship 
still lives, and 

Mt. Vernon, Va., 
Speingfield, III., 
Sagamore Hell, N. Y., 
henceforth are inseparably linked together to bear wit- 
ness of something in the lives of three great Presidents 
that could not be buried in a tomb. 

It is unmistakably clear that it was left for the events 
of the passing week to bring to the surface the hidden 
power Roosevelt exerted upon the public mind. 

His robust manliness, extraordinary brain and far- 
sighted vision, all filled with Americanism of the purest 
type, turned the eyes of the entire world upon him as one 

to help to build something better than an Empire. 

# # * 

No other man in the United States seemed to me so 
much alive as Theodore Roosevelt, and what he thought, 
he liked to say. 

For a long period of years his name, until quite 
recently, appeared oftener in the newspapers than any 
other since Abraham Lincoln's time, as his views on 
public questions were sought and freely given. 

In the first years of service under the national govern- 
ment I knew him very well. I was present at the cabinet 
meeting when President Benjamin Harrison presented 
Mr. Roosevelt's name as one of the three Ci\il Service 
Commissioners. He became its most active member, and 

60 



IN MEMORIAM 

the Post Office Department was the subject of his fre- 
quent assaults. 

I heard President Harrison, who admired Mr. Eoose- 
velt, say to him that ''he was the most pugnacious man 
he ever knew." 

He was a remarkable man, as honest as the sun, ever 
brim full of healthful, youthful energy, capable of pro- 
longed effort, splendidly educated, bold as a lion, brave as 
Kitchener or Lord "Bobs," intensely American, with 
opinions on every phase of life, civilization and the 
world's governments. 

His soldierliness in the Spanish-American War placed 
him on horseback for all time, notwithstanding the 
embargo of Washington, which while conscripting men 
needed for the army and navy, refused to accept the 
services of Colonel Roosevelt, frequently tendered. 

There were few sweeter, lovelier homes in the world 
than that of the Christian family of plain Mr. and Mrs. 
Theodore Roosevelt and he vnW be missed greatly at this 
stage of our country's affairs. 

The Roosevelt home life was one of the best Christian 
Endeavor Societies in the land. 




By Senator France of Maryland 

It was with profound sorrow that I learned of the 
death of Colonel Theodore Roosevelt. Within the last 
few months I have had several long conferences with him, 

61 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

and on each of these occasions he seemed to be in perfect 
physical condition. His death involves a loss not only to 
this Republic, but to the cause of progressive repubhcan 
government throughout the world. Roosevelt was a con- 
structive progressive. He did not believe in disordered 
democracy, with its inevitable tyranny, but in the consti- 
tutional republic so organized as to insure liberty. 

His great and memorable address at the Oriole Park, 
in Baltimore, at the opening of the last Liberty Loan 
campaign, in which speech he outlined his broad policies 
for the reconstruction period and for the nation's far 
future, revealed again his capacity for courageous and 
constructive statesmanship. 

In the last analysis, this war has been a mighty con- 
flict between reaction and liberalism in government. Men 
have been battling and dying for political and social lib- 
eration. During the present reconstruction period, it 
shall be decided whether these martyrs shall have sacri- 
ficed in vain for the cause of freedom. We must not go 
back to the old static and passive condition. We must 
organize the world not for friendship only, but for jus- 
tice. The aim of a world league should not be to establish 
a mere universal pacifism. We need, not an international 
league of peace, but one of purpose and of progress. It 
would be deplorable to create a new balance of power to 
re-establish and preserve old intolerable conditions. The 
world requires an enlightened and aggressive leadership 
by organized republics, dedicated to the spread, even at 
the risk of ease and comfort, of republican principles and 
of a higher civilization throughout all the dark portions 
of the world where millions of men dwell in bondage. 

The American people believe this, and that is why 
they were surely turning toward Roosevelt, who knew 



IN MEMORIAM 

world conditions in India, in Africa, and in the remote 
countries and islands of the seas, and who also knew the 
realities of the difficulties in international relationships. 
The people believed in the sincerity of his motives and 
had confidence in him as a man both of vision and of 
action, rather than a man of dreams. They admired him 
because he had the courage to fight for the right. Amer- 
ica is a nation where men have ideals and are also prac- 
tical, and our people know that only a vital, red-blooded, 
militant, progressive leadership can lead the world out of 
this present wilderness. That is why men were turning 
to him, and why a world, woefully lacking in such leader- 
ship, must mourn him. 



«^€. 




By Senator Miles Poindexter 

The great keynote of Theodore Roosevelt's life and 
jsuccess was service. He served mankind. He was a 
'teacher and exemplar of work and action. He found 
rest and recreation by passing from one form of exertion 
to another. No man ever made a fuller use of the mental 
and physical powers with which he was endowed than 
Roosevelt. He put his talents to work and the result was 
a great harvest of benefits for his time and generation 
and for those to come. His industry and determination 
were applied not only to the use of such powers as were 
at his command in extraneous undertakings, but exempli- 
fied themselves in the intense form of the improvement 
of his own faculties. He was complete master of himself 

63 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

and fixed his regimen by such a rule as would conserve 
and improve bis bodily and mental faculties. Physically 
weak, even as a boy he adopted such a course as to make 
him physically strong. This was done not by mere 
chance, but by set purpose and plan pursued with energy, 
self-denial, and determination. 

Being master of himself, developing himself, and 
bringing his faculties to the height of their capacity, he 
became also a master of others ; not by the imposition of 
power, but by the gift of his ser\'ice. Pascal has said that 
''the proper study of mankind is man." Socrates, amid 
the tyranny and prejudices of his times, taught his pupil 
"Know thyself." Jesus, at the Sea of Galilee, said to 
the poor fishermen, in their sordid occupation, *'I vdW 
make you fishers of men." Roosevelt was a student of 
man, and of himself, and knew himself ; and he rendered 
service as a ''fisher of men." Men Hstened to him 
because of his sincerity. They knew that he was their 
friend. Ha\dng their confidence, he used the powers 
which he had developed and the influence which he had 
gained for the good of mankind. He directed them in 
safe ways. He fought injustice ; was a champion of the 
weak; feared not the strong; overcame his prejudices; 
and was a happy warrior in the eternal struggle for 
justice and truth. 

Having gained power he abused it not, but guarded 
it as a trust, and cherished in his heart of hearts loyalty 
to his obligations. It was said of Roosevelt that, in the 
height of his power as President of the United States, 
he had upon the wall of his office a striking picture of a 
typical farmer, and that on one occasion he pointed to 
it and said : "There is the man that I am working for." 
By it he meant that he was working primarily for those 

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Theodore Roosevelt as a Cowboy in His Ranching Days in North Dakota. Where Ha 
Stood for L.air and Order and Gained Robust Health. 



IN MEMORIAM 

lost in the multitude that makes our nation, who often 
cannot speak for themselves when great interests are 
being decided. He recognized no class in the claims of the 
people upon their government; but he felt undoubtedly 
that, while the great were entitled to justice, ordinarily 
they were able to present their demands; but that the 
silent multitude must depend upon the loyalty and faith 
of those who sat in the seats of the mighty and exercised 
the powers of sovereignty. He was greater than his 
office. Great as is the office of the Presidency, and there 
is no greater, Roosevelt commanded it. It did not com- 
mand him. In directing its powers he was able to assume 
the initiative among all the officials and complicated func- 
tions of state, and brought into use the accumulated, rip- 
ened fruits of all his strenuous years of effort. 

He is gone ; but is still here. His mortal remains are 
mingling with the soil he loved so well, but his spirit lives 
in the hearts of the millions for whom he had toiled. 
When he fell, in the very midst of his activities, like a 
plumed knight in battle, a gloom fell over the nation. A 
real spiritual depression was manifest among the people. 
They felt and knew that not only a great public servant 
had passed into the ''undiscovered country," but that a 
close and dear personal friend was gone. Never, per- 
haps, in the history of the nation has there been, between 
a public leader and all classes of the people, a more per- 
sonal, sincere, and deep affection than that between 
Roosevelt and his people. His greatest legacy and memo- 
rial is the example of his stainless character, of his cour- 
ageous and useful life, by which the mothers of the future 
may guide the steps of youth. 
Washington, D. C, Miles Poindexter. 

January, 1919. 

65 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Tribute by Bishop Fallows 

Theodore Roosevelt stands as one oi" the most forceful 
illustrations of the truth that man can create circum- 
stances and conditions and not be controlled by them. 
From a puny infant, by rigid obedience to the laws of life, 
he became the incarnation of vigorous health and activity. 

He mounted by successive steps in official positions, 
all of which he honored by faithful doing, to the highest 
place to which man can aspire, the Presidency of the 
United States of America. 

He went there as the living embodiment of a vital 
Americanism. The various racial strains in his blood 
made him the one great type of the mighty nation which 
embraces the whole civilized globe in its fold. He did 
not wait to be forced by the imperious voice of his people 
to do their righteous bidding ; he led them splendidly for- 
ward over the top, in the cause of justice and the square 
deal. 

When God wills a great reform, he sometimes makes a 
man wrong-headed in the right direction to bring it about. 
If Roosevelt was ever wrong-headed, it was always in the 
right direction, and all the wrongs he confronted gave 
way before him. 

He felt the universe in his leaping pulses : 

"Born for that Universe, he shrank not his mind, 
Nor gave up to party what was meant for mankind." 

His courage was proverbial. Over his grave, as over 
the grave of John Knox, could be truthfully said, "There 
lies he who never feared the face of man," 

"Give me where I may stand and I vdW move the 
world," said Archimedes. Roosevelt made good his 
standing-place and moved the world. He was deeply 

66 



IN MEMORIAM 

religious, thoroughly rooted and grounded in the love of 
God and of his fellow-man. The call of humanity was 
thrilling music to his soul. And as the knight errant of 
the race he ever went full panoplied to break the lance 
to meet its needs. 

Side by side with Lincoln he stands in his rugged 
personality and in his all-pervasive sympathy with 
human kind. Like Lincoln he was the people's man. 
Nay, like him he was the world's man. And as at the 
death of Lincoln that world poured out its tribute of love 
and regard as it had never done before for anyone of 
woman born, so at the death of Roosevelt it sent the 
undying words of affection and esteem. The trinity in 
unity of the nation's greatest Americans we shall ever 
honor : Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt. 

By Dr. Frank Crane 

Theodore Roosevelt is dead. 

He has stepped from the midst of controversy and 
taken his place among the immortals, against whom no 
man can speak. 

For the moment the conflict ceases, friend and foe 
stand with bared heads to do homage to a great and 
valiant soul. 

There is a sudden and loyal silence throughout all the 
hosts. For no man has ever been more a part of every 
man in the United States than has Theodore Roosevelt. 

His friends will rush no more quickly to speak his 
praise than his enemies. 

67 




LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

For he was a man's man, and it was a joy to fight him 
as well as to agree with him. 

His spirit was a fierce and beautiful flame. His opin- 
ions were simple and always avowed with the wholeness 
and self-abandon of a true believer. 

He would have made a wonderful knight in the days of 
Charlemagne, a fair and worthy companion to Roland. 

He conceived of life, of duty and even of love in terms 
of conflict. His makeup was militant, but his conceptions 
were always sincere. 

His chief characteristic was courage. Whatever may 
have been charged against him in the extravagance of 
dispute, his bitterest foe must confess that he was to the 
last a warrior unafraid. And that quality of fearless- 
ness, that indomitable bravery, when lodged in this weak 
humanity, is always a thing of beauty, a little spark of 
God. We love it. We respect it. It is the great worth- 
while thing in an immortal soul. 

So he was a friend, conceived of as a friend, in a pas- 
sionate and personal way, as no other statesman of Amer- 
ican history, except Lincoln. 

He was very near to the American heart. And, even 
in the stormy days of these vast issues that have swept 
beyond him, the tribute of respect that this people pays 
to him will be honest and profound. 

He had a public mind and gave himself to the service 
of the people with a singleness of purpose that ^^^ll be an 
inspiration to American youth. He was thoroughly 
human. He was frank, over-frank sometimes, but we love 
the man whose heart outruns him. 

Kings may pass and be followed to their graves with 
"the boast of heraldry, the pomp of power." Presidents 
and premiers may die and their statues be set up in halls 

68 



IN MEMORIAM 

of fame, but none will go from the midst of the living and 
leave a sense of deeper personal loss than this splendid 
man, this impetuous companion, who has been snatched 
by death from the intimate affection of a great people. 

The Bull Moose has made his last charge. 

The rough rider has led his last assault. 

Bwana Tumbo, the mighty hunter, is back from this 
perilous expedition we call life, and has gone home. 

Friends and opponents, with equal earnestness, cry 
out: **God rest his soul!" 

Upon his tomb there can be inscribed an epitaph, than 
which there can be no nobler, no prouder, no truer 
tribute : 

''Here lies a real American." 

Frank Crane. 



By the Governor of Illinois 

The Nation has suffered a loss it cannot well afford 
at this time. Theodore Roosevelt has been a dominant 
factor in American public life for thirty years. During 
all his life, he has sought and striven for a better, juster 
society. Men have differed with him as to the route, but 
not as to the goal humanity should strive to attain. His 
robust and fearless Americanism was like a bugle call 
to his countrymen, whenever danger threatened, from 
within or without. Whether in office or in private life, 
he was a leader of thought and an inspirer of action. 
And now, with the new problems which the end of the 
war has brought, his voice will be sorely missed. It is 
fortunate indeed for the coming years that he lived long 
enough to give utterance upon many of the most impor- 

69 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

tant questions which confront us. Whenever despotism, 
whether the despotism of some future Hohenzollern or 
a Bolshevist, shall threaten, Theodore Roosevelt, though 
in his grave, ^v^ll speak to the American people with a 
compelling voice. He is still the valiant foe of greed, 
oppression and injustice. He is not dead, but has gone to 
join his brave, beloved boy. He vriW live forever in the 
hearts of the American people. 




By a Charter Member of the Progressive Party 

A great leader of men has fallen with a crash untimely 
and all the world bows its head in sorrow at his loss. 

In his native land the hum of industry and of commerce 
is hushed and stilled as the mortal remains of Theodore 
Koosevelt are laid to rest, and millions mourn his passing. 

The sorrow of his fellow-countrymen knows no class, 
no creed, no color. Rich and poor alike knew him, 
respected him, esteemed him, admired him, trusted him, 
followed him, and loved him. He was the American par 
excellence, the plus-American, the prototype and exemp- 
lar of all the ideals that true Americans stand for and 
strive after, in public and in private life. He typified 
America, with an upright, unselfish, virtuous, red-blooded 
and God-fearing personality. 

In distant lands, where kings and emperors, whom he 
was wont to meet on terms of perfect equality, delighted 

70 



IN MEMORIAM 

to do him honor, the name of Eoosevelt was a household 
word, and the voice of sorrow at his death finds sincere 
and eloquent expression. 

From the democratic kings who are the only mon- 
archs left in Europe by the tremendous wave of progress 
whipped up by war, there come the tributes of more than 
mere diplomacy, more than old-world courtesy. They, 
too, knew him and were moved to admiration of his stal- 
wart manhood and sterling statesmanship. Responsible 
ministers of mighty foreign powers, ambassadors of 
state, and great national leaders of world renown, testify 
in a score of languages their high appreciation of his life 
and their reverence for his memory. 

Humanity hailed him as a citizen of the world, and 
mourns his departure as that of a friend and brother. 

In the camps of American soldiers, at home and over- 
seas, there is one universal sense of loss. To the Ameri- 
can in arms, there was an inspiration and an ideal in the 
patriotic figure of ''The Colonel"; and that ideal will 
never cease to be cherished, nor that inspiration cease to 
be felt, wherever martial feet may tread beneath the 
Stars and Stripes. For it is a modern Bayard that has 
fallen — ^in very truth, a knight without fear and without 
reproach. 



The life of Theodore Roosevelt was spent for the most 
part in public service. "He was straight, he was hon- 
est," said the world's greatest inventor on hearing of 
his death; and therein summed up the secret of Roose- 
velt's strength. His life was an open book, and in his 
straightforward honesty and sincerity of pui'pose he 
stood hke a mighty rock when the fierce storms of politi- 

71 



LIFE OF THEODOKE ROOSEVELT 

cal criticism beat upon him with a fury that would have 
overwhelmed a lesser man. 

For nearly fortj^ years he was in the focus of the 
pubhc eye ; yet throughout that long period of ceaseless 
activity no breath of defamation ever succeeded in assail- 
ing the virtues of his private life or his integrity as a 
public servant. True, he was defamed, and more than 
once ; but the foul breath of the defamer recoiled in every 
case, leaving the fair name of Theodore Roosevelt 
unscathed and its would-be despoiler an object of public 
opprobrium. Probably no public man in American his- 
tory ever passed so freely through the fires of criticism, 
or left his enemies worse confounded in the end. A man 
of his strong convictions and courage in expressing them 
was bound to make enemies, and, as a rule, the great 
American public loved him the better for the enemies 

he made. 

* * * 

In the "White House Mr. Roosevelt took rank as one 
of the country's greatest Presidents. For the first time 
the United States had an executive who knew the West 
as he knew the East, and he was the President of the 
whole people, knowing no sectional prejudice or distinc- 
tions of class or party, when it was a question of holding 
the scales with equal justice to all. He took a sane view 
of the relations of Labor and Capital, and lost no oppor- 
tunity of defining, with mirror-like clearness, the rights 
and the duties of each in close correlation with the body 
politic. His state papers were models of conciseness and 
force. He wielded a trenchant pen and spoke with a 
tongue of fire. He aroused the sleeping conscience of the 
American people, awakened their moral sense to the 
existence of undoubted evih, and laid dovra. principles of 

72 



IN MEMORIAM 

public and commercial conduct that were universally 
recognized as essential to the progress of the republic. 
He fought for equal rights to all, for social and industrial 
justice, and for the rightful place of America among the 
nations. He was a lover of peace, but an apostle of 
preparedness for his beloved country, believing that 
therein lay the surest guarantee of peace. 

The private life of Theodore Roosevelt was singularly 
blameless, and his domestic hearth was ever a haven of 
happiness. Famous for his love of children, he lived to 
find great joy in the society of his children's children. He 
was the idol of American youth, and his own sons did but 
follow in their father's footsteps when all four of them 
eagerly volunteered for active service when the great 
war involved their country in its inescapable meshes. The 
death of his son, Quentin, who fell in aerial combat in 
France, low to lie in Glory's lap, and the honorable 
wounds sustained by two other sons, testified to the 
patriotic devotion of this great American family and its 
will to sacrifice even life itself upon the altar of country 
and freedom. The great heart of the American people 
went out in sympathy to Colonel Roosevelt in his 
bereavement, but he bore it like the Spartan father and 
soldier that he was. A pity 'tis that he did not live to 
visit the last resting place of his son in France, though 
that will ever be kept green by the grateful tears of the 

French people. 

* * * 

The travels of Theodore Roosevelt had carried him 
over a very large part of the civilized world, and into 
the darkest corners of Africa and South America. He 
was a mighty hunter and untrodden paths possessed for 

73 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

him a peculiar fascination. In exploration he evinced the 
same traits of courage and initiative that marked his 
career in politics and in statesmanship. He was indeed 
a many-sided man. Loving study as few men do, he also 
loved the outdoor life. He found his recreation in all 
kinds of healthy sport, and was equally at home on horse- 
back and afoot. He took pleasure in pedestrianism as 
well as in the blood-tingling gallop of a mettled steed. He 
rowed, he sailed, he fished, he hunted, he boxed, he 
wrestled; and at all the sports and exercises that he 
essayed, he excelled. It was his nature to excel. 



"Wherever he went, in whatsoever society he found 
himself, Theodore Roosevelt was at home. Honored in 
the most exclusive circles of the metropolis, he was 
equally welcome in the ranch-house of the plains and the 
abode of the lowly. No public man in America — probably 
none in the world, save Gladstone — was ever so univer- 
sally known and identified by his mere initials. Certainly 
no American was ever so constantly greeted and 
acclaimed in public by the diminutive pet-name of his 
boyhood. These were no tokens of ordinary popularity ; 
they were tokens of popular love. 

Unfailingly courteous to women, he became their 
especial champion, recognizing their power in human 
affairs and the rights to which they are entitled. He 
fought for all the downtrodden and oppressed. Though 
born in the only real American aristocracy, that of brains 
and culture, he was pre-eminently a man of the people. 
And, behold, how easy it is to shorten that statement in 
his case, and thereby paradoxically make it more com- 
plete : He was a man ! 

74 



IN MEMORIAM 

Soldier of Liberty and friend of man, farewell I Best 
thee in peace ! Though dead, thou still livest. Thy years 
of patriotic service have not been spent in vain. The les- 
sons of thy life and the glory of thine achievements shall 
never fade from the minds of thy grateful countrymen, 
and in their hearts thou art lovingly enshrined till time 
shall be no more. 

We cherish thy memory here on earth ; we commend 
thy spirit to God who gave it. 



January 8, 1919. 



«^^«iM%^^^/^;5^e^ 



75 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



ROOSEVELT 

Who goes there? An American! 

Brain and spirit and brawn and heart, 
'Twas for him that the nations spared 

Each to the years its noblest part; 
Till from the Dutch, the Gaul and Celt 

Blossomed the soul of Roosevelt. 

Student, trooper, and gentleman 
Level-lidded with times and kings, 

His the voice for a comrade's cheer, 
His the ear when the saber rings. 

Hero shades of the old daj-s melt 
In the quick pulse of Roosevelt. 

Hand that's molded to hilt of sword; 

Heart that ever has laughed at fear; 
Type and pattern of civic pride; 

Wit and grace of the cavalier ; 
All that his fathers prayed and felt 

Gleams in the glance of Roosevelt. 

Who goes there? An American! 

Man to the core — as men should be. 
Let him pass through the lines alone, 

Type of the sons of Liberty. 
Here, where his fathers' fathers dwelt, 

Honor and faith for Roosevelt ! 

Grace Duffie Boylan (ISOl), 



76 



CHAPTER II 
BIRTH AND BOYHOOD 

Theodore Roosevelt a Native of New York — His Pioneer 
Ancestry — Social and Political Leaders in New York 
City — His Parents and Grandparents — The Boy 
Father of the Man. 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT, destined to becom© 
twenty-sixth President of the United States and the 
typical American citizen, was bom on October 27, 1858, 
at No. 28 East 20th Street, New York City. He came of 
one of the oldest Dutch-American families. For more 
than two hundred years his forbears have been leaders 
in the community and councils of New York. 

Members of the family were prominent in the com- 
mercial and pubHc life of the colony under both Dutch 
and English rule, and, subsequent to the Revolution, in 
the State. Among them were merchants and lawyers of 
distinction, who served in both the provincial and the 
State legislatures. 

The founder of the family in America was Klaes 
Martensen van Rosevelt (as the name was originally 
spelled), who left Holland about 1644 ''to better himself 
spiritually and financially.*' After many days in the 
steerage of a slow-sailing vessel, he landed at what was 
then called New Amsterdam, at the foot of Manhattan 
Island. He was a typical settler, or immigrant, much the 
same as many who yearly come to our shores and are 

77 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

given the freedom of the country to prove themselves 
good citizens or failures, thrifty or shiftless, the founders 
of American families or burdens to the state. It was his 
fortune to found a great, a useful, and a patriotic Amer- 
ican family, of untold value to the state and the nation. 

From that time for the next seven generations every 
one of the Roosevelts was born en Manhattan Island, and 
for seven generations Roosevelts, father and son, have 
from the same district in New York represented the 
people in the city council, the State Assembly and the 
United States Congress. In Theodore Roosevelt's ances- 
try are found soldiers and political leaders, merchants, 
judges, planters and pliilanthropists. 

During the Revolution some of the family served 
acceptably, though \\athout special distinction, in the 
Continental army. Others rendered service in the Con- 
tinental Congress or in various local legislatures. There 
were ancestors of Theodore Roosevelt both in the North 
and in the South during the Revolutionary period. Those 
in the North were for the most part merchants ; those in 
the South planters. 

A Dinner to George Washington 

Of Klaes van Rosevelt's descendants, one of the many 
to appear in prominence was Isaac Roosevelt, who had 
dropped the **Van" and was a member of the New York 
provincial council, a member of the city council and 
the president of the Bank of New York. 

As an auditor of the accounts of the State at the close 
of the Revolution in 1783 Isaac Roosevelt approved a bill 
for the entertainment of the French Minister and George 
Washington at a dinner whore the bill for wine consid- 
erably exceeded the bill for food, and where, as Colonel 

78 



BIRTH AND BOYHOOD 

Roosevelt pointed out in bis autobiography, only eight 
of the guests survived the potations to coffee. One John 
Cape was the caterer, and bis significant bill was as 
follows : 

The State of New York, to John Cape ^^^ 

To a Dinner Given by His Excellency the Governor and Council to 
their Excellencies the Minister of France and General Washington & Co. 
1783 

December 

To 120 dinners at Ss £48: 0:0 

Tc 135 Bottles Madira 5-4: 0:0 

36 ditto Port 10:16:0 

60 ditto English Beer 9: 0:0 

30 Bouls Punch 9 : 0:0 

8 dinners for Musick 1 : 1- : 

10 ditto for Sarvts 2: 0:0 

60 Wiue Glasses Broken 4:10 :0 

8 Cutt decanters Broken ^- 0:0 

Coffee for 8 Gentlemen 1 : 12 :0 

Music fees &ca ^'- 0:0 

Fruits & Nuts '^- 0:0 

£156:10:0 

By Cash 100^0 

55:14:0 
We a Committee of Council having examined the above account do 
certify it (amounting to one hundred and fifty-six Pounds ten ShiU- 
ines) to be iust. December 17th 1783. 

^^ •" ISAAC EOOSEVELT 

JAS. DUANE 
EGBT. BENSON 
FEED. JAY 

Received the above Contents in full x^ttt^t ^«t^t7 

New York 17th December 1783 JOHN CAi E 

imagine the effect on public opinion if a bill of that 
nature were to be presented nowadays for payment by 
the State of New York, for the entertainment of the 
French Ambassador and General Pershing. 

An earlier ancestor was Nicholas J. Eoosevelt, born 
in New York and a member of the City Council of 
New York from 1700 to 1701. His son, John, a mer- 
chant, served as a member of the city government from 
1748 to 1767, and laid the foundation of the Roosevelt 

79 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

fortune. John's son, Cornelius, was also a merchant who 
was elected to the New York city council following the 
Kevolution, from 1785 to 1801. The son of Cornelius, 
James Roosevelt, another merchant, was a member of the 
city council in 1797 at the same time his father was a 
member. 

President Roosevelt's Grandfather 

The son of James was James J. Roosevelt, grand- 
father of the future President. He was a member of the 
city council of New York from 1828 to 1830, a member of 
the State Legislature and congressional representative 
from 1835 to 1840. 

James J. Roosevelt was associated with Robert Fulton 
in the invention of the steamboat, and the promotion of 
navigation by steam. After the success of the experiment 
had been established in the tidewater region, James J. 
Roosevelt made a survey of the Ohio and Mississippi 
Rivers, with the idea of introducing steam na\dgation in 
those streams. Satisfied that the plan was feasible, he 
built at Pittsburgh the first steamboat on the Western 
inland waters, vdth which in the A^-inter of 1810-1811 he 
made the first trip by steam from that point to New 
Orleans. 

''Of my grandfather," said the Colonel in his auto- 
biography, ''my most vixdd childish reminiscence is not 
something I saw, but a tale that was told me concerning 
him. In his boyhood, Sunday was as dismal a day for 
small Calvinistic children of Dutch descent as if they 
had been of Puritan or Scotch Covenanting or French 
Huguenot descent — and I speak as one proud of his Hol- 
land, Huguenot and Covenanting ancestors, and proud 
that the blood of that stark Puritan divine, Jonathan 
Edwards, flows in the veins of his children. One sum- 

80 



BIRTH AND BOYHOOD 

mer afternoon, after listening to an unusually long Dutch 
Eef ormed sermon for the second time that day, my grand- 
father, a small boy, running home before the congrega- 
tion had dispersed, ran into a party of pigs, which then 
wandered free in New York streets. He promptly 
mounted a big boar, which no less promptly bolted and 
carried him at full speed through the midst of the out- 
raged congregation." 

His Father 

James J. Roosevelt's son Theodore (1831-1878), the 
father of the President, was one of the foremost citizens 
of New York. He was a member of the prosperous house 
of Roosevelt & Co., glass importers, of Maiden Lane, when 
on a trip to Georgia he met Miss Martha Bulloch, mother 
of the future President. During the Civil "War he aided 
in the equipment and organization of troops, including 
negro regiments, and was one of the leaders in organizing 
the Sanitary Commission. He suggested and drew up the 
Federal Allotment law, devised for the purpose of saving 
the pay of soldiers, and himself served as a member of the 
State Allotment Commission which saved more than 
$5,000,000 for the soldiers of New York State. He was 
one of the founders of the "Union League Club, the Ortho- 
pedic Hospital, and the Children's Aid Society, while the 
Newsboys' Lodging House owed its existence to his sole 
efforts. As a practical philanthropist, the works he 
accomplished for the poor were legion, and when he died, 
in 1878, a year before his famous son became of age, flags 
flew at half-mast all over the City of New York and rich 
and poor followed his remains to the grave. 

It is interesting at the present time, with the problems 
of reconstruction after the Great War staring the nation 

81 



LIFE OF THEODORE FOOSEVELT 

in the face, that on the return of peace after the Civil 
War, when hundreds of thousands of young men were 
suddenly mustered out of the army and thrown upon their 
own resources, it was the elder Roosevelt who formed a 
Soldiers' Employment Bureau in New York, whose 
streets were thronged with idle and moneyless men. To 
see that they got their just dues from the Government 
without being robbed by claim agents, he joined in estab- 
lishing the Protective Claims Association. 

"My father, Theodore Roosevelt, was the best man I 
ever knew," said the Colonel in recalling his youth. "He 
combined strength and courage with gentleness, tender- 
ness, and great unselfishness. He would not tolerate 
in us children selfishness or cruelty, idleness, cowar- 
dice, or untruthfulness. As we grew older he made 
us to understand that the same standard of clean liv- 
ing was demanded for the boys as for the girls; that 
what was wrong in a woman could not be right in a man. 
With great love and patience and the most understanding 
sympathy and consideration, he combined insistence on 
discipline. He never physically punished me but once, 
but he was the only man of whom I was ever really afraid. 
I do not mean that it was a wrong fear, for he was 
entirely just, and we children adored him." 

His Mother 

On his mother's side, Theodore Roosevelt was 
descended from some of the best-known families of the 
South, combining in his veins the blood of both Scotch- 
Irish and Pluguenot ancestors. His gi'eat-great-grand- 
father, Archibald Bulloch, was a member of the Conti- 
nental Congress, and the first State Governor of Georgia. 
One of his great-grandfathers, Daniel Stewart, was a 
brigadier-general in the Continental army. 

82 



BIRTH AND BOYHOOD 

The lineal descent on the maternal side to Colonel 
Roosevelt was as follows : One of the sons of Governor 
Bulloch of Georgia was Captain James Bulloch of the 
Virginia state garrison, who w^as born in 1765. He and 
his wife, Annie Irvine, were the parents of Major James 
S. Bulloch, who married a daughter of United States Sen- 
ator Dunwoodie, and later married Martha Stewart, 
daughter of General Daniel Stewart of the Revolution. 
Of this marriage came Martha Bulloch, who married 
Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., of New York on December 23, 
1853, at her father's home in Roswell, Cobb County, Ga. 
These were the parents of Theodore Roosevelt, who 
became President of the United States and died at Oyster 
Bay, N. Y., on January 6, 1919. 

Of his mother, the late President wrote : "My mother, 
Martha Bulloch, Avas a sweet, gracious, beautiful South- 
ern woman, a delightful companion and beloved by every- 
body. She was entirely 'unreconstructed' to the day of 
her death. Her mother, my grandmother, one of the 
dearest of old ladies, lived with us and was distinctly 
over-indulgent to us children, being quite unable to 
harden her heart towards us even when the occasion 
demanded it. ' ' 

It is interesting to note that Theodore's two uncles 
on his mother's side, James Dunwoodie Bulloch and 
Irvine Bulloch, of Georgia, \dsited the Roosevelts in New 
York shortly after the close of the Civil War. Being at 
that time among the Confederates exempted from the 
amnesty, they came under assumed names. 

Mrs. Roosevelt's elder brother. Captain James Dun- 
woodie Bulloch, had been in the United States Navy, but 
at the outbreak of the Civil War was in the merchant 
marine, commanding a ship plying between New York 

83 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

and New Orleans. This ship, the Bienville, was in port 
at New Orleans at the time of the secession of Louisiana 
from the Union, and the Governor commanded Captain 
Bulloch to turn her over to the state. The Captain 
refused, and his fealty to the South was brought into 
doubt. Nevertheless he believed that honor required him 
to deliver the vessel into the hands of her owners in New 
York. Until he had done that he did not feel free to join 
the Confederacy. 

On offering his services to Jefferson Davis, he was at 
once commissioned a captain in the Confederate Navy 
and dispatched to England to buy arms for the new gov- 
ernment. He discharged this duty successfully and deliv- 
ered his purchases, being the first to run the blockade. 

His next assignment was one of the most important 
and delicate tasks that fell to a Confederate officer. He 
returned to England to buy and equip vessels of war for 
the South. The British government was forbidden by 
the laws of neutrality to permit such a thing to be done 
in her ports. The minister of the United States did his 
utmost to prevent the launching of the Confederate ves- 
sels which Captain Bulloch built, and commissioners were 
hastened from Washington, with $10,000,000 in United 
States bonds, in a last effort to stop his work. 

But he was not checked until he had set afloat fully 
half a dozen ships under the stars and bars of the South, 
among them the Alabama, and when the war was over 
Great Britain was compelled, by the arbitration of 
Geneva, to pay the government of the United States 
$15,000,000 for the damages which Captain Bulloch's 
ships had inflicted on Northern shipping. For his serv- 
ices he was commissioned admiral by the Confederacy. 

84 



BIRTH AND BOYHOOD 

Mrs. Roosevelt's younger brother Irvine won a com- 
mission in the navy of the South and was the navigating 
officer of the Alabama in the destructive cruise of that 
ship. When the Alabama was sunk in a battle with the 
United States ship Kearsarge off the coast of France, he 
commanded the last gun that was in action and fired the 
last shot from her sinking deck. The men of the Alabama 
were rescued by an English yacht, and Irvine Stephens 
Bulloch married the daughter of one of his English 
rescuers. 

President Roosevelt did not hesitate to say that he 
was proud of the gallantry of his Confederate uncles in 
the war, and of ''Uncle Jimmy" he said: "My uncle 
always struck me as the nearest approach to Colonel 
Newcome (Thackeray's hero in 'The Virginians') of any 
man I ever met in actual life." 

A Product of Heredity 

Even this cursory glance at the nature of his ancestry 
will doubtless be found sufficient to force conviction that 
Theodore Roosevelt was essentially a product of hered- 
ity — <<an example which the eugenists (whose views he 
championed) may cite with pride, and a witness to the 
value of taintless blood and vigorous stock. He was what 
he was, through the heritage of his ancestors." 

Henry Adams, a great-grandson of one President and 
a grandson of another wrote of him a few years ago that 
"Roosevelt, more than any other man living, -showed 
the primitive quality that belongs to ultimate matter — the 
quality that medieval theology assigned to God — he was 
pure act. * * * Roosevelts are born and never can be 
taught." 

And it is a striking fact that even that supreme 
endowment of will, which enabled him by conscious disci- 

85 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

pline and conscientious endeavor to build over bis puny 
body into one of vast energy and strength, may readily 
be traced to ancestors of stark Puritan makeup, to whom 
an implacable "vvill was most pleasing in the sight of God 
and the lack of it an evil and a horror. 

The superb physical equipment of Roosevelt's pro- 
genitors, which had become weakened through time and 
chance, he regained by the use of the great fund of reso- 
lution with which they had endowed him. 

In his veins was Dutch, German, Scotch-Irish, Welsh, 
French Huguenot, and English blood, with the blood of 
Dutch dissenters and Scotch Covenanters predominating. 
In him were blended the temperaments of the Calvinists 
of the North and the French Huguenots of the South, of 
the Quakers and of the Puritans. And of these the out- 
standing virtues are obviously honesty, strength of con- 
viction, righteousness, self-discipline, and the fighting 
qualities which insure and go with them. In his ancestry 
can be traced no neurasthenics or sentimentalists, no 
wavering, weak-willed, inert, and dependent men or 
women. The Roosevelt stock has given us no poets or 
philosophers, theologians or great authors, men of arts or 
of science; but it has given us men of ser\dce and of 
action. 

Boyhood Days 
The Roosevelt baby who was destined to become the 
Nation's twenty-sixth — and youngest — President was one 
of four children, two boys and two girls. He was the 
elder son and the only one to grow to manhood. The 
house on East Twentieth Street in which ho was born was 
a typical New York town house of the old-fashioned sort, 
in the Gramercy Park section of Manhattan. It was fur- 
nished as he himself has said, "in the canonical taste of 

S6 



BIRTH AND BOYHOOD 

the New York which George William Curtis has described 
in ' The Potiphar Papers. ' The black haircloth furniture 
in the dining room scratched the bare legs of the children 
when they sat on it. The middle room was a library, with 
tables, chairs, and bookcases of gloomy respectability. It 
was without windows, and so was available only at night. 
The front room, the parlor, seemed to us children to be a 
room of much splendor, but was open for general use only 
on Sunday evening or on rare occasions when there were 
parties. The Sunday evening family gathering was the 
redeeming feature in a day which otherwise we children 
did not enjoy — chiefly because we w^ere all of us made to 
wear clean clothes and keep neat." 

As a boy the young Theodore played tag in Madison 
Square, which was not far from his home in East Twen- 
tieth Street. The summers were spent in the country, 
now at one place, now at another, sometimes at Oyster 
Bay, Long Island, where Mr. Roosevelt subsequently 
made his permanent home. 

All the Roosevelt children loved the country and its 
outdoor life, and were always wildly eager to get to the 
country when spring came. They had there all manner of 
pets, ran barefoot much of the time, and with a favorite 
Shetland pony named General Grant developed a great 
fondness and aptitude for riding. Thirty years later, by 
the way, Theodore's own children had a pony named 
General Grant. 

Thanksgiving was a festival of great rejoicing in the 
family, but it was not to be compared with Christmas, 
which was to the young Roosevelts ''an occasion of 
literally delirious joy." In the next generation it was 
the annual pleasure of the Colonel to reproduce for his 
children the Christmas joys of his own j^outh. 

87 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

As a boy the young Theodore was pnny and sickly; 
but with that indomitable determination which charac- 
terized him in every act of his life, he entered upon the 
task of transforming his feeble body not merely into a 
strong one, but into one of the strongest. How well he 
succeeded every American knows. This physical feeble- 
ness bred in him nervousness and self-distrust, and in the 
same indomitable way he set himself to change his char- 
acter as he changed his body, and to make himself a man 
of self-confidence and courage. He has told the story 
himself in his autobiography : 

"When a boy I read a passage in one of Captain 
Marryat's books which always impressed me. In the 
passage the captain of some small British man-of-war is 
explaining to the hero how to acquire the quahty of fear- 
lessness. He says that at the outset almost every man 
is frightened when he goes into action, but that the course 
to follow is for the man to keep such a grip on himself 
that he can act just as if he was not frightened. After 
this is kept up long enough it changes from pretense to 
reality, and the man does in very fact become fearless by 
sheer dint of practicing fearlessness when he does not 
feel it. (I am using my own language, not Marryat's.) 
This was the theory upon which I went. There were all 
kinds of things which I was afraid of first, ranging from 
grizzly bears to 'mean' horses and gun-fighters; but by 
acting as if I was not afraid I gradually ceased to be 
afraid. Most men can have the same experience if they 
choose. They will first learn to bear themselves well in 
trials, which they anticipate and school themselves in 
advance to meet. After awhile the habit will grow on 
them, and they will behave well in sudden and unexpected 
emergencies which come upon them unawares." 

8S 



BIRTH AND BOYHOOD 

Weak, but Not an Invalid 

Theodore, the child, was far from being an invalid 
during those early days at Oyster Bay and elsewhere in 
the country, but he was markedly less robust than even 
the physical average of his little playmates — so much so 
that he was rarely permitted to play with the lusty 
youngsters of his neighborhood. 

But he had a strong will and a crystal brain even when 
a child. He battled with a troublesome asthma in boy- 
hood days by *' working" in a porch gj^mnasium. Stead- 
ily his bodily health was being brought nearer the normal 
by outdoor exercise, the boy himself as he grew older 
arranging a programme of rowing, swimming in the 
Sound, hikes over the hills, long horseback rides. Also 
he kept a diary and read so many books of history and 
adventure that he was a boyish bookworm. 

As he grew older and as his chest expanded, he grew 
to love his outdoor life with a passion that remained 
forever. 

Developed Into a Naturalist 

Simultaneously his rambles and rides developed an 
early interest in animals, birds, plants, all growing 
things, which in time was to assume an importance in his 
mentality second only to his love of political life and was 
to make of him a naturalist. 

The fight for health lasted for years. The winter of 
his childhood spent on the Nile partly rid him of the 
asthma, but it was not until he had lived in the West that 
the disease left him. Besides his bodily weaknesses he 
was very near-sighted. 

In Koosevelt's boyhood home, under the discipline of 
his father, there was plenty of time for play, but none 

S9 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

for idleness. If he was not strong, he was at least all 
boy, if we are to accept the description of one of his ear- 
lier intimates, the Long Island stage driver on whose 
front seat ''Ted" frequently rode. 

"He was a reg'lar boy. He was alius outdoors climb- 
ing trees and goin' bird nestin'. I remember him par- 
ticular like because he had queer living things in his 
pockets." 

The child was indeed father to the man, and many of 
the tastes acquired in boyhood remained with him to the 
end, in a highly developed and specialized form. 

Weakness so often interrupted the studies of the 
young Theodore that he took no pleasure in the compe- 
tition of the schoolroom, although the records of the 
public school, which he attended for a time, give him 97 
in geography, 96 in history, and 98 in rhetoric. His 86 in 
spelling was pretty good for a spelling reformer. It is 
remembered by his teachers that he was strong for com- 
position and declamation and that he had uncommon skill 
in map-making. His schooling, however, was necessarily 
irregular, and he was prepared for college by a private 
instructor. 

His Early Democracy 

When Theodore was about ten years old his parents 
took a house overlooking the Hudson River in Dobbs 
Ferry for a summer. The property is known as the 
Paton place, and its association with the Roosevelts has 
been a source of pride to the older people of the pretty 
village opposite the Palisades. 

Theodore is remembered by Dobbs Ferry men who 
were boys with him as small of stature for his years and 
inclined to be delicate. They remember also that the 
force of character, courage, and democracy that later 

90 



BIRTH AND BOYHOOD 

became dominant characteristics were noticeable in bis 
dealings with his companions. Unlike the other youths 
of prominent families that lived on the big estates along 
Broadway, from the first days of his family arrival he 
took part with energy in the boyish enterprises of those 
among whom he found himself. He was usually to be 
found with a crowd of boys on expeditions to the Saw 
Mill River to swim and fish, and on these hikes, though 
many were bigger and stronger than he, none outdid him 
in endurance. 

Roosevelt's particular pal among the boys was John 
MacNichol, and the friendship of the two lasted until the 
day of the Colonel's death, when MacNichol told how he 
came to be the friend of Roosevelt's Dobbs Ferry days. 

Roosevelt, assertive in what he believed to be right, 
quarreled with two other boys of the "gang." Both of 
the other boys were bigger than Roosevelt, but he had 
raised his arms and was awaiting the onrush of the two 
when MacNichol arrived. MacNichol, who was strong 
for his age, took Roosevelt's part and his two foes called 
off the impending fight. 

In later years MacNichol became the village black- 
smith. While he was hammering at his anvil his old 
friend was mounting to the great position he attained. 
Roosevelt did not forget his old friend, and on the not 
infrequent occasions when he passed through Dobbs 
Ferry after automobiles made Broadway along the Hud- 
son a popular highway, he always stopped at MacNichol's 
shop for a chat. 

When the former President died, MacNichol showed a 
memento which he cherishes most highly. It is a letter on 
White House stationery from President Roosevelt, thank- 
ing him for a horseshoe which the blacksmith had fash- 
ioned with particular care. 

91 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Two Trips to Europe 

The young Theodore was taken to Europe in 1869 
in the hope that it would benefit his health. "A 
tall, thin lad with bright eyes and legs like pipestems," 
is the memory picture drawn by one who was a play- 
mate of his on the ship. Again, in 1873, he crossed the 
seas and went to Algiers, for his weakened lungs were giv- 
ing his family some concern and the warm African air 
was sought as a balm for them. By President Grant's 
appointment, his father was the American commissioner 
to the Vienna Exposition in that year, and Theodore, 
with his brother Elliott and sister Corinne, now Mrs. 
Douglas Robinson, were brought from Algiers to Dres- 
den, in Germany, where they were placed in the home of 
a tutor. 

This tutor interested Theodore, because he was an old 
revolutionist of 1848 and had suffered in prison for Ger- 
man liberty. He was, moreover, a member of the German 
parliament or reichstag in 1873. It is recalled in this 
family that their young American guest was an eager 
and enterprising student, but not a brilliant scholar. 
Nevertheless, one member of the household lived to vow 
that she predicted then that he would be President of the 
United States. ''He seemed to pick up things, one did not 
know how." He delighted in the German classics and 
laid the foundation for speaking German well, although 
his asthma, while in Dresden, made an uninterrupted 
conversation by him very difficult. All the while, how- 
ever, he was fighting for health and strength with all the 
determination of his nature and an indomitable will to 
succeed, as he ultimately did. 

He took drawing lessons in Dresden and showed an 
unusual interest in natural history, the pursuit of which 

92 



BIRTH AND BOYHOOD 

took him outdoors. When the Roosevelts were leaving 
Dresden for Switzerland, it was found that Theodore's 
trunk was so filled with the stones he had collected that 
he had discarded some of his clothing. His mother 
thought it better to leave the stones than the clothes, but 
as fast as she threw them out of the trunk, the young 
disciple of Nature picked them up and, truly boylike, 
put as many of them as he could in his pockets. 

Dresden always remained a happy memory to Mr. 
Roosevelt, and just before entering Harvard he wrote to 
his old friends in Germany : "I shall not go into business 
until I have passed through college, which will not be for 
four years. What business I shall enter then I do not 
know." He did not need to cross the bridge until he 
came to it. 

He had won the battle of his boyhood. He had van- 
quished the enemy of ill-health and was ready to play a 
man's part in life. '*I made my health what it is," he 
once said. * ' I determined to be strong and well and did 
everything to make myself so. By the time I entered 
Harvard I was able to take part in whatever sports I 
liked. I wrestled and sparred and I ran a great deal, 
and, although I never came in first, I got more out of the 
exercise than those who did, because I immensely enjoyed 
it and never injured myself." 

Felt the Unity of the Nation 

Intellectually and morally, Theodore Roosevelt inher- 
ited much from his progenitors. Born just before the 
Civil War of a Northern father and a Southern mother, 
both sympathizing with their native section of the land, 
he came naturally by his strong feeling that all sections 
of the country were coherent as a nation. This feeling 

93 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

was strengthened by his intimacy with the West and 
increased by his utter familiarity with the East. 

To this feeling may be traced his well-known convic- 
tion for Federal centralization, perhaps one of the 
strongest of his con\ictions. His pronounced feeling 
for the South is also traceable to his pride in the family 
of his mother. 

''He got," so it has been said, ''his love of a scrap 
from the Irish in him, his volatility from the French, his 
wariness from the Dutch, and his frugality from the 
Scotch." 



i 



94 



CHAPTER III 

LIFE IN COLLEGE 

Enters Harvard University — Appearance at That Time — 
A Studious Collegian — Vacations in the Maine Woods 
— Boxing at Harvard — Graduation — Another Trip to 
Europe. 

When he returned to America from Europe at the age 
of fifteen, Theodore Roosevelt began serious study under 
tutors to enter Harvard. In 1876, when near eighteen, 
he was enrolled as a freshman and entered the Uni- 
versity. Of all the members of the class of '80, his 
classmates have said, he was almost the last they would 
have picked out as a man destined for greatness. He 
who was to become the most rugged and impressive figure 
in the public life of his time went to college a stripling of 
average height, slim of build, with narrow shoulders and 
a rather flat chest. The fight for ruggedness was not yet 
fully w^on when he appeared on the campus at Cambridge. 

Just before entering Harvard he had been sent by his 
family into the woods of Maine, where he developed his 
taste for woodcraft under an old guide, Bill Sewall of 
Island Falls. Here he learned to know and to love the 
wilderness. He camped and tramped with the old woods- 
man and made a lifelong friend of him. In the village 
of Island Falls the pale young man from New York is 
still remembered, and it is said, "Everyone in the Falls 
likes him, for he was as plain as a spruce board and as 

95 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

square as a brick." He had shot his first deer in the 
Adirondacks at the age of sixteen, and in Maine he 
roamed the primeval forest with Bill Sewall, who pro- 
nounced the boy "grit clear through." Most of his 
college vacations subsequently w^ere spent with Bill in 
the Maine woods. 

A Good Student 

In college the young Roosevelt was studious. He was 
neither a ''grind" nor a trifler. His name and his means, 
two things that counted for a good deal at Cambridge, 
gave him an opportunity to splurge. But the struggle 
for health in his boyhood had given him simple tastes, 
and he could not be a snob, because he had been brought 
up to respect the feelings of others. 

He selected two rooms in a lodging house near Har- 
vard Yard, we are told, and these he fitted up plainly. 
Instead of the unbecoming extravagance and frivolity, 
with w^hich well-to-do students sometimes furnish their 
quarters, at an expense running into the thousands, his 
rooms were ornamented by the skins of stuffed animals 
and by rare birds which he himself had mounted. He did 
sport a high and fancy trap, which was the latest fashion 
then, for he loved a horse, although he was not yet the 
finished horseman that he afterward became. 

Though he never cared to ''loaf," when he entered 
a room where loafing was going on he always gave a 
hearty greeting to "the roomful of fellows," then usually 
took up a book, probably one on natural history, and 
became dead to the world. While he studied indus- 
triously, he took more exercise than his friends realized. 
He ate "ravenously of plain food," and a man who sat 
at the same table with him for four years never heard 
him "kick about the grub." 

96 



LIFE IN COLLEGE 

The more select clubs and societies at Harvard 
sought him out and took him in, and his name was 
enrolled among the chosen few of his class in the Insti- 
tute of 1870, the Porcellian Club, and the Alpha Delta 
Phi, more renowned as the A. D., while he became secre- 
tary of the famous old Hasty Pudding Club. At the same 
time he is remembered pleasantly by that other and far 
larger number of his classmates, who were not of these 
fraternities, although he had not yet gained the full meas- 
ure of the active democratic spirit which his broader life 
out of college was to give him. 

While many homes in Cambridge and in Boston were 
open to him, he evinced little taste for formal society, 
his interests being in quite another direction. * ' He wel- 
comed the chance to meet his fellows in the friendly 
rivalry of vigorous sports," says one of his biographers, 
"and to put to the test the strength and skill he had 
acquired on his back porch gymnasium at home. To 
develop the muscles of his legs, which were not yet the 
firm support that they were to be in his full maturity, he 
took to skipping the rope. Others caught the habit from 
him and rope skipping passed into the fashion of the 
day. Wrestling was another of his hearty pastimes, and 
he pursued it as a science." 

An incident of his student life at Harvard shows 
how Theodore Roosevelt had already gained that readi- 
ness to act in any situation which was one of his marked 
traits at all times. A horse in a stable adjoining his lodg- 
ings aroused the neighborhood in the dead of night by a 
noise that indicated it was in sore trouble. Half a dozen 
men got up and dressed and went to the rescue, only to 
find, when they reached the stable, that Roosevelt was 
already on the scene and doing the needed thing to relieve 

97 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the poor beast. For he had not stopped to dress nor even 
to take time to walk downstairs. He had gone to the res- 
cue out of a second-story back window, and climbed down 
a piazza post in his night clothes. 

In 1877 he was one of twelve members of the sopho- 
more class mentioned for the editorial board of the Har- 
vard Advocate. A committee was appointed to inquire 
into the fitness of the men for the places, that the board 
might vote with intelligence. When the editors came 
together to hear the reports, the man who had looked into 
the qualifications of young Roosevelt said : 

''I cannot see that he is the kind of man we want. 
Although I find that he is a thoroughly good fellow and 
much liked by his classmates, I do not believe that he has 
much hterary interest. He spends his spare time clip- 
ping off pieces of rock and examining strata, catching 
butterflies and bugs, and would, I think, be better suited 
for a scientific society than for us.'* 

The board sustained this view, and instead of Roose- 
velt elected a man who has since won considerable fame 
as a writer of fiction. Later in his course, however, Mr. 
Roosevelt was elected to the board, but did little editorial 
work. 

Boxing at Harvard 
Barred from baseball and football by poor eyesight 
and from the crew by his light weight of 130 pounds, he 
turned his attention to boxing, a sport in which above all 
things a man must have a keen sight for judging distance. 
He sometimes strapped a large pair of glasses to his 
head before beginning a sparring match and probably is 
the only man who ever took the chances of hard boxing 
with a pair of glasses on his nose. His delicate appear- 
ance amazed those who saw him make his first appear- 

98 



I 



LIFE IN COLLEGE 

ance in the gymnasium, and he was a very doubtful-look- 
ing entry in the lightweight class. To offset his handi- 
caps, he aimed to lead swiftly and heartily, and thus put 
his opponent on the defensive from the start. 

In many ways Roosevelt's later life was foreshadowed 
at Harvard. A remarkable similarity, reflecting his gen- 
erally recognized straightforward sportsmanlike quali- 
ties, is found for example in incidents that took place in 
the sparring ring at Harvard and at Milwaukee in the fall 
of 1912 when he was campaigning as the Progressive can- 
didate and was shot by erratic John Schrank. Here is an 
instance in which he showed the real sportsmanship that 
was always one of his most marked characteristics: 

Sisters, parents and admirers had gathered in the 
name of their pet undergraduates for the fall athletic 
meeting in the old round gymnasium by Quincy Street 
and Memorial Hall at Cambridge. Roosevelt was a junior 
then and entered for the middle-weight sparring. His 
antagonist was a senior. The senior sparred with more 
coolness, but neither seemed to have the advantage. 

At the end of a round ''Time !" was called and Roose- 
velt dropped his defense. The senior, however, before 
he knew the round was over, landed a haiJ jolt on the 
junior's nose and the blood flowed freely. Immediately 
a hiss went up and cries of ''Shame!" It was only a 
second before Roosevelt, whirling round, checked the 
demonstration with a gesture demanding silence. 

"It's all right! It's all right!" he exclaimed. "He 
didn 't hear the call ! ' ' And he seized his opponent 's hand 
in a hearty grip. 

Taught Sunday-School at Harvard 

But while Theodore Roosevelt was active in the gym- 
nasium at Harvard, he was also active in good works. 

99 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Having joined the old church of his fathers, the Dutch 
Reformed, in New York, and for awhile taught a Sunday- 
school class there, it was natural that he should seek out 
a Sunday-school and a chance to teach as soon as he was 
settled at Harvard, and that his choice should have fallen 
upon a mission school. There being no church of his 
own denomination in Cambridge, he took a class in the 
handiest school, which happened to be of the high-church 
Episcopalian variety. *' Theodore Roosevelt asked no 
questions, but went to work." He got on famously with 
his class of boys and girls. 

Then one Sunday a boy came to school with a black 
eye, and owned up that he had got it in a fight. The 
young teacher questioned him earnestly about it. The 
boy explained that *' Jim," who sat beside his sister, had 
been in the habit of pinching her during the lessons. So 
they had had a stand-up fight about it, and he had gal- 
lantly given ''Jim" a good punching but had acquired a 
black eye for himself in the process of punishing the 
offender. The verdict of Theodore Roosevelt, muscular 
Christian, was prompt. 

''You did perfectly right," he said to the boy, and 
gave him a dollar. The class hailed this as ideal justice, 
but it scandalized the officers of the school, with whom 
Roosevelt was not popular. He had failed to observe 
some of the forms of the Episcopal ser\dce, being unfa- 
miliar with them, and the upshot of the matter was that 
Roosevelt moved over to a Congregational Sunday-school 
near by and taught there during the remainder of his four 
years' course in college. 

Impressions of Harvard 
"I thoroughly enjoyed Harvard and I am sure it did 
me good," wrote Mr. Roosevelt in later years, "but there 

100 



LIFE IN COLLEGE 

was very little in my actual studies which helped me in 
after life. Before I left Harvard I Avas already writing 
one or two chapters of a book I afterwards published, 
on the naval war of 1812. These chapters were so dry 
that they would have made a dictionary seem light read- 
ing by comparison. Still, they represented purpose and 
serious interest on my part. 

*'I had at that time no idea of going into public life, 
and I never studied elocution or practiced debating. This 
was a loss to me in one way. In another way it was not. 
Personally I have not the slightest sympathy with the, 
debating contests in which each side is arbitrarily 
assigned a given proposition and told to maintain it 
without the least reference to whether those maintaining 
it believe in it or not. I know that under our system this 
is necessary for lawyers, but I emphatically disbelieve in 
it as regards general discussion of political, social, and 
industrial matters. 

''What we need is to turn out of our colleges young 
men with ardent convictions on the side of the right ; not 
young men who can make a good argument on either right 
or wrong as their interest bids them. The present method 
of carrying on debates encourages precisely the w^rong 
attitude among those who take part in them. There is no 
effort to instill sincerity and intensity of conviction. On 
the contrary, the net result is to make the contestants 
feel that their convictions have nothing to do with their 
arguments. I am sorry I did not study elocution in col- 
lege ; but I am exceedingly glad that I did not take part in 
the type of debate in w^hich stress is laid, not upon getting 
a speaker to think rightly, but on getting him to talk 
glibly on the side to which he is assigned, without regard 
either to what his convictions are or to what they ought 
to be. 

101 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

*'As regards political economy, I was of course while 
in college taught the laissez-faire doctrines — one of them 
.being free trade — then accepted as canonical. Most 
American boys of my age were taught both by their sur- 
roundings and by their studies certain principles which 
were very valuable from the standpoint of national inter- 
est, and certain others which were very much the reverse. 
The political economists were not especially to blame for 
this ; it was the general attitude of the writers who wrote 
for us of that generation." 

Graduation and Travel 

He graduated from Harvard with the degree of A. B. 
in June, 1880, standing twenty-second in his class, which, 
by the way, was about the same as Grant's rank at West 
Point. He won few academic honors. No commence- 
ment part fell to him and the only mentions he received 
were in natural history and economics. He had shaped 
his studies to some extent with the idea of fitting himself 
to be a professor in some branch of natural science, but 
gradually the desire for a more active career than that 
afforded by a college professorship possessed him. 

After graduation at the age of twenty-two, young 
Roosevelt went almost immediatelj^ to Europe. An indi- 
cation of his improved physical condition is found in the 
fact that he climbed the Jungfrau and the Matterhorn, 
thereby winning immediately membership in the Alpine 
Club of London, an honor not given to weaklings of soul 
or body. He returned to New York with the strongest 
sort of a bent for life in the open — and decided to become 
a lawyer. 

He entered the Columbia University Law School, at 
the same time hammering away at the practical side of 
law in the office of his uncle, Robert Barnhill Roosevelt — 

102 



LIFE IN COLLEG'E 

a Democrat and distinguished Manhattan lawyer, who 
was a member of the old Committee of Seventy that dug 
into Tammany crookedness; a Democratic member of 
Congress in the early '70s, United States Minister to the 
Netherlands later, a national committeeman, and first 
president of the Holland Society. 

But young Theodore Eoosevelt never followed out the 
law to the extent of becoming a full-fledged lawyer. The 
death of his father in 1878 had left him with a fortune, 
modest but ample enough to wander into whatever fields 
invited, and, although he had only just become of age, 
the most tempting field to him even then was politics. 
Advice to a Young Lawyer 

Before Theodore had been in Robert Roosevelt's 
law office long enough to take his examination for 
admission to the bar, he was elected to the State Legisla- 
ture. Though he never practiced law, he had definite 
ideas on the way to win success at the bar, and expressed 
them a few years later for the benefit of a struggling 
young lawyer. 

''If I were you," he said, "I would hang out my shin- 
gle and get a case. I don't care how you get it. Your 
own wits ought to find one, at least, w^hich no other lawyer 
has. I would not take a justice-shop case, either. I would 
find a case that was right up in the regular courts, and 
which possessed some merit. I wouldn't take it up for 
nothing, either, or on a contingency. I would have a 
decent fee attached to it. In other words, I would have 
as many respectable features attached to the case as 
possible under the circumstances. 

' ' Having got that case, I would try it as if it were the 
last case I ever expected to have or which would ever be 
in the courts. I would not make a nuisance of myself — 

103 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

yon know enough to avoid that — but you can be so per- 
sistent that you will win the respect of everyone who in 
any way comes in connection with the trial. Put all of 
yourself into the case. Get every side of it, and above all 
things hammer it into your client by the force of your 
actions that your integrity is above reproach. 

''When you get done with the case you will have a 
reputation that many lawyers devote years in other ways 
trying to obtain. You w^ill find that a second case is cer- 
tain to come to you whether you lose or win the first case. 
I would treat the second case just as I did the first one. 
Live and act as if there never were such a case in exis- 
tence before, and master it, just as you are required to 
master your studies at the law school. If you find your- 
self weakening at all, use the spur and whip until you 
have created an enthusiasm in your work that imparts 
itself to client, court, and jury, and results in your 
victory. 

*'Go at the third case in the same way. And for the 
matter of that, as your patronage increases, give the 
same treatment to all your cases. You will create confi- 
dence in yourself that will insure you a constant practice, 
and your clients, once secured, will never leave you." 

It may be worth while noting, says Mr. George Wil- 
liam Douglas, that this theory w^orked, for the young man 
put it into practice and won his first case on a technical 
point which all the other law^^ers had overlooked. 



104 



CHAPTER IV 
ENTRY INTO POLITICS 

Attends His First Primary — Discovers His Life Work — 
Nominated and Elected State Assemblyman — Fights 
Corruption and Beats a Hired Thug — Good Work and 
Valuable Experience in the Legislature — Reform His 
Watchword — Early Steps in National Politics. 

It was in 1881, when he was twenty-three years of age, 
that Theodore Roosevelt attended his first primary in 
New York and thereupon discovered his life work. To 
the average well-educated young man of his day, there 
might well have seemed nothing but mean selfishness and 
sordidness in a city primary; but Mr. Roosevelt was 
prompt to recognize the power of the primary and its 
importance in a free government. 

He saw an opportunity for good work to his liking, 
and practical politics immediately began to attract him. 
It was the beginning of a life-long interest, based upon a 
sincere desire to correct existing evils of government and 
to be of service to the community wherever service such 
as he could render was needed. From that time on he 
served wherever duty called and was nover found 
wanting. 

Mr. Roosevelt had only just returned home from his 
post-graduation travels when he was solicited to become a 
candidate for election to the Legislature of New York 
from the Twenty-first Assembly district of the State. 

105 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

For nearly two centuries the Roosevelts had been con- 
cerned with public affairs, and the prospect of an active 
political life had a natural attraction for the young man. 
Hon. Chauncey Depew, the distinguished former Sen- 
ator of New York, has told in his memorial article in 
earlier pages some of the circumstances that attended 
the first nomination of Mr. Roosevelt for public office, 
and it is not necessary to recount them. Other intimate 
details of the event, however, that are still remembered 
among New York politicians, will be found interesting. 

How He Was Nominated 

One day when Mr. Roosevelt was scarcely more than 
a year beyond the last of his college days, he met one Joe 
Murray, a district worker around the Roosevelt home 
locality. Joe Murray had had a falling out with Jacob 
Hess, the district boss of the Twenty-first Assembly dis- 
trict. Jacob Hess had had his own idea as to who should 
be the next Assemblyman from the Twenty-first. Joe had 
an idea wholly different. 

''Listen, men," said Joe Murray to his faction of anti- 
Hess district workers, according to the best local political 
historians of the day. ''What this silk-stocking neigh- 
borhood mil rise to is a swell candidate for the Assembly. 
WHio's the swellest family around here? The Roosevelts. 
Listen, men — let's trot out this young colleger, Tedd)' 
Roosevelt, and we'll put Barney Hess flat on his back." 

The young "colleger" got the nomination. Instantly 
he began a local campaign that had all those elements of 
the picturesque which in after years were to draw the 
attention of the world to his far greater contests. And 
whether it was due to his own campaign methods, the 
hearty hustling of his lieutenant, Joe Murray, a desire of 
the neighborhood for blue blood in the Assembly, or a 

106 



ENTRY INTO POLITICS 

combination of all these elements, the youthful-looking 
colleger, Teddy Roosevelt, was elected. He took his seat 
at Albany in January, 1882. 

From the beginning of his public life the party ''man- 
agers" were against him. They did not like the reputa- 
tion of Roosevelt's for independent and fearless honesty 
of purpose and action ; they looked young Roosevelt over, 
noted his square jaw and independence of speech, and 
resented them. They soon discovered that he was in the 
habit of thinking for himself and would not submit to 
dictation from ''headquarters," and so his fight against 
bossism and the powers of evil in politics began with his 
first nomination and continued with added zest after his 
election. The "managers" soon found out with what 
manner of man they had to deal. It was a political giant 
in process of development. And the young giant knew 
that corruption existed at Albany and throughout the 
State. That was enough for him, and he soon got busy. 

A Fearless Speech 

It was on April 6, 1882, that young Roosevelt took the 
floor in the Assembly at Albany and demanded that Judge 
Westbrook of Newburgh, against whom certain charges 
had been made, be impeached. And for sheer moral cour- 
age that act is probably supreme in Roosevelt's life thus 
far. He must have expected failure. Even his youth 
and idealism and ignorance of public affairs could not 
blind him to the apparently inevitable consequences. 

That speech — the deciding act in Roosevelt's career — 
was not remarkable for eloquence. But it was remarkable 
for fearless candor. He calle*d thieves thieves, regardless 
of their millions ; he slashed savagely at the judge and the 
attorney-general ; he told the plain unvarnished truth as 
his indignant eyes saw it. 

107 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

When lie finished, the veteran leader of the Repub- 
licans rose and with gently contemptuous raillery asked 
that the resolution to take up the charge be voted down. 
He said he wished to give young Mr. Roosevelt time to 
think about the wisdom of his course. 

"I," said he, ''have seen many reputations in the 
State broken do^^^l by loose charges made in the Legis- 
lature." 

And presently the Assembly gave ** young Mr. Roose- 
velt time to think" by voting not to take up his "loose 
charges." 

Ridicule, laughter, a ripple — apparently it was all 
over, except the consequences to the bumptious and dan- 
gerous young man which might flow from the cross set 
against his name in the black books of ''the ring." 

He Fights Corruption and Wins 

That night the young man was once more urged to be 
"sensible," to "have regard for his future usefulness," 
to "cease injuring the party." He snapped his teeth 
together and defied the party leaders. The next day he 
again rose and again lifted his puny voice and his puny 
hand against smiling, contemptuous Corruption. 

Day after day he persevered on the floor of the Assem- 
bly, in interviews for the press; a few newspapers here 
and there joined vrith. him; Assemblymen all over the 
State began to hear from their constituents. Within a 
week his name was known from Buffalo to Montauk Point, 
and everywhere the people were applauding him. 

On the eighth day of his bold, smashing attack the 
resolution to take up the charges was again voted upon 
at his demand. And the Assemblymen, with the eyes of 
the whole people upon them, did not dare longer keep 
themselves on record as defenders of a judge who feared 

108 



ENTRY INTO POLITICS 

to demand an investigation. The opposition collapsed. 
Eoosevelt won by 104 to 6. 

Beats a Hired Thug 

When the gentlemen who had been accustomed to run 
the lower house of the Legislature, no matter which party 
was in power, found that they could not control Mr. 
Roosevelt, that he could be neither bought nor bullied, 
they resorted to the desperate expedient of hiring a thug 
to administer physical chastisement as a rebuke for his 
temerity in opposing their will. The mere fact showed 
the caliber of the men who had been in almost absolute 
control of legislation in the State — and the need of men 
like Roosevelt in public life. 

One night, in the lobby of the old Delavan House in 
Albany, since burned, the thug and his expected victim 
met. There the legislators were accustomed to congre- 
gate every evening and much of the ** inside'* business 
of the session was transacted. Mr. Roosevelt started to 
leave the hotel at 10 o'clock on the night in question, after 
spending some time chatting with fellow-members. As he 
passed a door leading to the buffet, a noisy group 
emerged, as if by signal. Among them was a pugilist 
known as "Stubby" Collins, and this fellow proceeded 
to jostle Mr. Roosevelt with some force. Instantly the 
latter, who was alone, realized the nature and animus 
of the act. He paused, on guard, and "Stubby" struck 
at him, demanding mth a show of indignation what he 
meant by running into him that way. 

"Stubby's" blow did not land on the young legis- 
lator. His employers had not told him that Mr. Roose- 
velt had been one of the best boxers at Harvard, and 
enjoyed a fight. But he had been paid to "beat up" the 
young man and went ahead to earn his fee. 

109 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

AVitli great coolness Mr. Roosevelt awaited the attack 
which he knew was coming. He took up a position where 
he could see, not only the thug, but all the group accom- 
panying him and in the background certain others whom 
he suspected of being the real principals. As he stood 
waiting, ''Stubby" made his rush. 

The fight lasted less than a minute, for the thug had 
more than met his match. He had the surprise of his life. 
As his friends picked him up from the floor, a badly 
beaten man, "Stubby" gazed in astonishment at the smil- 
ing Roosevelt and realized that he had much to learn 
about boxing and ''beating up." 

As the thug was removed for repairs, Mr. Roosevelt 
walked across the lobby and pleasantly informed the 
astounded promoters of the affair that he understood 
their connection with it and was greatly obliged to them. 
He said he had not enjoyed anything so much for a year. 

Respect for his personality was thenceforth among 
the mingled feelings with which he was regarded by the 
inner circles of legislation at Albany, and his influence 
grew apace. 

Becomes a Force in Politics 

The investigation of the accused judge which Mr. 
Roosevelt had secured, as noted above, resulted in a 
whitewashing report, but that w^as not his fault. 

The vote to investigate was his first personal political 
victory, and from then on in the Legislature he was a 
force to be reckoned with. In the fall of 1882, the year in 
which Grover Cleveland was elected Governor of New 
York, Roosevelt was re-elected Assemblyman by a big 
majority, despite the fact that it was a Democratic year. 
In 1883 he was elected for a third term. During his 
second term he was the Republican floor leader, and in 

110 



ENTRY INTO POLITICS 

his third he was a candidate for the speakership, but was 
defeated through the influence of Warner Miller. 

During his last two terms in the Assembly Roose- 
velt came into close touch with Grover Cleveland, then 
Governor. Although of opposite political faiths, there 
was a bond of sympathy between the two men in their 
stalwart independence of thought and action, and the 
Governor grew to trust and rely on his young antagonist, 
even more surely, it is said, than he did the regular lead- 
ers of his own party. Time and again the Governor 
sought and found in the Republican leader the support 
and encouragement that his own partisans denied him. 
Particularly was this true in their united efforts in behalf 
of a better civil service, in the national development of 
which both were to be such efficient champions. It was 
Mr. Roosevelt who, following the recommendation in the 
Governor's message, introduced and pushed through the 
Legislature a State civil service act, very similar to and 
almost simultaneously with the Federal act. 

Results of Legislative Work 

Mr. Roosevelt's experience in the Legislature was of 
great value to him, in his development as a public man. 
It also resulted in his introduction to the nation, for 
larger opportunities for service were soon to open before 
him. His work as a legislator was handicapped by the 
opposition that sought to nullify his efforts, particularly 
at the start, but he succeeded in making a decided impres- 
sion on the legislation of his terms and several measures 
of great public utility owed their inception to him. 

Besides securing the enactment of a civil service law 
for the State, thus inaugurating the merit system where 
it was sorely needed, he secured an investigation of the 
county offices of the State. By this investigation it was 

111 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

discovered that the principal officials in Xew York County 
were drawing nearly a million dollars a year in fees, 
while discharging no duties whatever ; and all such offices 
were subsequently placed on a moderate salary basis. 

Mr. Roosevelt also began an inquiry into the abuse 
of police power in New York, and this continued until 
better conditions were brought about. He secured an 
amendment to the Constitution of the State, taking from 
the aldermen of New York City the supreme executive 
power and placing it where it rightfully belongs, in the 
hands of the Mayor. This and other reforms in which he 
aided brought home to the people of the State a better 
realization of their power and ability to right wrongs and 
abolish evils, if they would but exert themselves through 
their representatives and the organization of public opin- 
ion to influence legislative action. Right gallantly did 
Theodore uphold the Roosevelt traditions in the Legis- 
lature. 

The Blaine Campaign in 1884 

Republican State leaders who had grown gray in the 
political turmoil while young Roosevelt still was a strip- 
ling, suddenly began to look his way and take some 
notice. In 1884, or in his twenty-sixth j^ear, they sent 
the young Assemblyman as chairman of the New York 
delegation to the Republican convention at Chicago which 
nominated James G. Blaine, ''the Plumed Knight," idol 
of the rank and file of Republicanism, as Cleveland's 
opponent after a bitter scrinmiage. 

The struggle over the Republican Presidential nomi- 
nation of 1884 began in the choice of delegates to the 
State convention. Mr. Roosevelt had to defeat his old 
opponent, Jacob Iless, the district boss, before he himself 
secured a place as delegate to the State convention at 

112 



ENTRY INTO POLITICS 

Utica. He had won the confidence of the reform element 
of his party, as represented by such men as George Wil- 
liam Curtis and Carl Schurz, who were united on George 
F. Edmunds, of Vermont, as their candidate. Mr. Roose- 
velt went to Utica an enthusiastic partisan of the Vermont 
statesman. The convention was divided between sup- 
porters of Arthur, Blaine, and Edmunds, and the dele- 
gates to the National convention were uninstructed. But 
Roosevelt and his friends held the balance of power, and 
he himself was made one of the delegates-at-large and 
chosen chairman of the delegation. 

In the proceedings at the Chicago convention he took 
a prominent part. He took part, at the opening session, 
in the revolt against the National Committee's selection 
of Powell Clayton, of Arkansas, as temporary chairman, 
and gave his support to John R. Lynch, of Mississippi, 
'a negro, who was elected. In the same spirit of revolt at 
machine dictation he advocated a change in the plan of 
selecting delegates to future conventions, which should 
make the number of Republican votes cast in the last 
previous election a basis of representation. The proposal 
was defeated then, as it has been several times since. In 
Ms role of reformer, the twenty-six-year-old delegate 
opposed the nomination of Blaine to the extent of stand- 
ing up in the convention and making a speech in which 
he placed the name of United States Senator George F. 
Edmunds in nomination. During the bitter struggle 
which ensued over the balloting, he worked and voted 
steadfastly for Edmunds, and w^as one of the nine New 
York delegates who voted for him on the final ballot. 

Went West to Think It Over 
After the convention Roosevelt went West to the 
ranch which he had bought in North Dakota to think the 

113 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

situation over in quiet and make up his mind what course 
to take. Many of his friends among the reform element 
of the party had announced in advance of the convention 
that they would not support Blaine if he were nominated. 
Every day saw some close friend or associate declaring 
his intention of supporting the Democratic nominees. He 
was at a parting of the ways. 

The idea of temporarily severing his connection with 
the party did not appear to him as possible. With him 
the question was simply whether he should stay in or stay 
out. He decided to stay in, and having decided he gave 
out the following public statement : ' ' I intend to vote the 
Republican Presidential ticket. A man cannot act both 
mthout and within the party; he can do either, but he 
cannot possibly do both. I went in with my eyes open to 
do what I could wdthin the party ; I did my best and got 
beaten, and I propose to stand by the result. I am by 
inheritance and by education a Republican; whatever 
good I have been able to accomplish in public life has 
been accomplished through the Republican party ; I have 
acted with it in the past, and I wish to act with it in the 
future." 

Following this declaration he returned to the East, 
where he took what was for him a rather inactive part in 
the campaign. Many independent Republicans, however, 
deserted Blaine and supported Cleveland. 



114 



CHAPTER V 
LIFE ON THE RANCH 

Getting Acquainted with the Wild West — Thrilled by the 
Plains — He Buys a Ranch — Gains by Western Life — 
Fight with a Bully — His Moral Strength — Hunting 
Big Game — The Roosevelt Ranch. 

While he was a member of the New York Legislature, 
Mr. Roosevelt, between legislative sessions, ''surren- 
dered to his impulses" and determined to become 
acquainted with the "Wild West." On his first western 
trip, with buffalo-hunting as the primary object of his 
quest, he left the train at the little town of Medora, North 
Dakota, a typical frontier town of those days. It stood 
then in the midst of the immense cattle country, long 
believed to be fit for nothing but cattle raising. 

The Marquis de Mores, a French nobleman, had a 
ranch at Medora, and the town was named after the 
Marchioness. It was the day of the "free range," and 
the cattle barons usually owned only a small part of the 
range over which their herds grazed. Here Mr. Roose- 
velt saw the Wild West "in the last glow of its golden 
age," soon to vanish before the advancing tide of settle- 
ment. 

The vast plains thrilled him with a new joy and gave 
him glimpses of a new life. In his book, "The Wilder- 
ness Hunter," he has described the impressions of one 
who, like himself, felt the charm of the boundless plains : 

115 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

**In after years there shall come forever to his mind the 
memory of endless prairies shimmering in the bright 
sun; of vast, snow-clad wastes, lying desolate under 
gray skies; of the melancholy marshes; of the rush of 
mighty rivers; of the breath of the evergreen forest in 
summer; of the crooning of ice-armored pines at the 
touch of the winds of ^\'inter; of cataracts roaring 
between hoary mountain passes ; of all the innumerable 
sights and sounds of the wilderness and of the silences 
that brood in its still depths." 

Before he left Medora he had purchased a ranch and 
identified himself with the West. He had hunted and 
camped vrith typical plainsmen and proved himself a 
man among men. Inquiring how much money it would 
take to go into the business of cattle-ranching, he was 
told that it would take at least $45,000. The Chimney 
Butte Ranch near Medora was available, and next morn- 
ing Mr. Roosevelt drew a check for $10,000 as first pay- 
ment on the ranch. 

In February of 1884, his mother died and two days 
later his first mfe, who was Miss Alice Hathaway Lee, 
of Boston, whom he had married in 1880, shortly after 
he left Harvard, passed away as her daughter, now Alice 
Roosevelt Longworth, entered the world. These domes- 
tic sorrows were followed by the defeat of his party with 
Blaine at the polls in November, 1884, and he then turned 
his face to the West and sou<i-ht solitude and distraction 
on liis ranch on the banks of the Little IMissouri. 

Sending for his old friend and guide. Bill Sewall of 
the Maine woods, he entered earnestly and practically 
into the business of ranching. Keeping his ranch at 
Chimney Butte, a few miles below jNTedora, he acquired 
another, many miles above that iovra. There, on a bluff 

116 



Life on the ranch 

above the Little Missouri, he found the skulls and inter- 
locked antlers of two big, round-horned elk who had 
fought until they died. He built a comfortable log-house 
on the spot and called the place Elkhorn Ranch. Here he 
spent the greater part of the next two years, living the 
life of the typical cow-puncher and studying the wildest 
West so thoroughly that the tang of it ever after was 
with him. On his ranch he laid the foundation for a 
series of books, "The Winning of the West," which were 
published at intervals from 1889 to 1896. Undoubtedly 
his Bad Lands experiences had much to do, years after, 
with his organization of the Rough Riders. 

Gains by Western Life 

From ranching life he acquired skill with horse and 
gun and the rugged constitution such as he had long 
sought. At the same time he learned the lesson of valu- 
ing associates on their individual worth as men. No 
one has ever denied to Mr. Roosevelt an understanding 
of the mind and temper of the man of the plains. His 
sympathies with the North and the South were bred in 
him, but "his intimate knowledge of the West was his 
own achievement. ' ' 

This rough and unconventional life, amid surround- 
ings where a man's position was measured not by pedi- 
gree or bank account, but by his own worth, had a power- 
ful influence on the future President's career. It resulted 
for him not only in an entire readjustment of values, but 
gave him an object-lesson in democracy that he never 
forgot. He entered into the life of the frontier region, 
not as an outsider with the message of a more highly 
developed civilization, but as one with the desire to enter 
into the life about him and accept things as they were. 
Yet through it all there ran an insistence on the recogni- 

117 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

tion of the reign of law. More than once he taught by 
example. On one occasion he organized and led a posse 
in midwinter on a month's chase after cattle thieves, and 
broke all precedents by bringing his prisoners safely back 
to jail, instead of follo\^ang the usual custom of hanging 
them where they were captured. 

Fight With a Bully 

He had not been long in the West before he discovered 
that certain peculiar social conditions prevailed, and 
commentators have observed that it was from adapting 
himself to these circumstances that he learned that a man 
stands or falls as he masters natural conditions and the 
circumstances about him. How well he adapted himself 
to circumstances, with instant decision and fearless 
action, is illustrated by the oft-told story of his encounter 
with a swaggering fellow who tried to force him to drink 
when he did not care to do so. The drawn and smoking 
gun of his assailant had no terrors for him and his 
refusal to be bullied resulted in the downfall of the bully 
and added respect for the young ranchman in the eyes 
of his fellows. Details of the story will be found among 
the ''Anecdotes of Roosevelt" later on. 

Referring to this incident after he had ceased to be 
a tenderfoot, Mr. Roosevelt himself made this comment : 
''I was never shot at maliciously but once. My assailant 
was a broad-hatted ruffian of a cheap t^^pe. The fact 
that I wore glasses, together ^vdth my evident desire to 
avoid a fight, apparently gave him the impression — a, 
mistaken one — that I would not resent an injury. " 

Though at first the ranchers were disposed to laugh^ 
at the "four-eyed dude," they changed their opinion 
when they found that no work was too hard for him, no 
hardship too severe, no peril too great. From that day 

118 



LIFE ON THE RANCH 

to this the cowpunchers and ranchmen have sworn by 
Theodore Roosevelt, and it was due to this that he was 
able to get such a fine class of frontiersmen in his regi- 
ment of Rough Riders. 

Showed His Moral Strength, Too 

A characteristic incident showing Roosevelt's readi- 
ness to thrown down the moral gauntlet occurred later at 
Medora at a meeting of cattle men. The county had three 
prisoners who were the last of a gang of outlaws, and it 
was shown that a deputy sheriff, who was in his "unoffi- 
cial moments" a cow thief, was in alliance with them. 
The ranchmen hesitated to denounce the sheriff when he 
strolled in to take part in the meeting of protest. He was 
a '* two-gun" man with a nasty temper and ''wore a brace 
of the most restless six shooters in the Kildeer region 
of the Bad Lands." 

Mr. Roosevelt was the one who explained to the sheriff 
in no uncertain terms the evil of cow stealing. The disap- 
pearance of the next cow, he said, might become the 
signal for declaring the corrupt official's office vacant, 
and it was not without the pale of possibility that cer- 
tain of Roosevelt's friends, whom he might be unable to 
restrain, might invoke the assistance of a rope or a Win- 
chester in preventing their herds from depredations. 

Contrary to expectations, the sheriff drew neither of 
the guns projecting from his belt; gave no resentful 
sign. His look at Roosevelt was one of startled under- 
standing of an unpleasant determination. But that was 
all — and the ranchmen of the Kildeer mountain region 
came to have a serene feeling as they turned into their 
blankets at night that their cows would not diminish in 
number before morning. 

119 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

From that time on Roosevelt's position in the West 
was one of distinction among men. His real business 
was raising cattle and caring for them on the plains, and 
if anything could have raised him in their estimation 
more than his determination to be a real ''cattle man" as 
distinct from a "sheep man" it was the display of nerve, 
which he never lacked. 

Captured Boat Thieves 

Once on returning from his ranch, says James Mor- 
gan in "Theodore Roosevelt, the Boy and the Man," he 
found that some horse thieves, in making their escape, 
had taken his boat. They felt sure that this would make 
them safe from pursuit because there was no other boat. 
Bill Sewall, however, built a rude craft in great haste, 
and on this he and Mr. Roosevelt and another man 
started down the Little Missouri. They floated probably 
for one hundred and fifty miles before thej' saw the camp 
of the fugitives. 

Mr. Roosevelt, unseen, stole ashore and upon the 
camp. When near enough he cried, with his weapon 
pointed, "Hands up, or I will shoot!" The only man 
about the place was asleep, so it chanced, and, thus rudely 
awakened, he was in great alarm. He rolled over and 
over on the ground in his anxiety not to be shot. He 
proved to be no more than a poor tool of the robbers and 
could hardly make himself understood in English. The 
thieves, two in number, madr" their appearance towards 
dark. They were in the stolen boat, Mr. Roosevelt and 
one of his men crept down by the river, where they 
sprang from their hiding as the outlaws drew near, and 
covered them with their guns. There was nothing for the 
men in the boat to do but to throw up their hands and 
surrender. 

120 



LIFE ON THE KANCH 

Nearly a week was required to take the captives to 
the county seat, a distance of two hundred miles. The 
boats stuck in the ice-jams and were almost upset. Each 
night a fire was built on the river bank and the two 
culprits were compelled to lie on opposite sides of it, 
while Mr. Roosevelt sat on watch until midnight and the 
rest of the night was di^dded between his two assistants. 

Lived the Hardest of Lives 

During his two years in the West as a ranchman Mr. 
Roosevelt lived the life of the hardiest plainsman. On 
round-ups he endured all the hardships of his men. He 
spent much of his time hunting, and killed specimens 
of all the game to be found on the plains and in the 
mountains. He was particularly fond of bear hunting, 
which requires a nerve as steady and an aim as sure as 
the pursuit of any game in the United States. 

But Roosevelt was never a ''dead shot." He always 
talked and wrote in a most dispassionate way about his 
*' misses." He was called by guides a ''mighty good 
game shot," his success being due to enacting faithfully 
his own description of the hunter wiiich he wrote for 
his ' ' Hunting Trips of a Ranchman ' ' : 

"He [the hunter] must be persevering, watchful, 
hardy, and with good judgment; and a little dash and 
energy at the proper time often help immensely. I 
myself am not and never mil be more than an ordinary- 
shot ; for my eyes are bad and my hand not over steady ; 
yet I have killed every Irind of game to be found on the 
plains." 

Hunted Big Game 

Even earlier than his ranching experiences — in 1883 — 
Mr. Roosevelt had attracted notice as a hunter of big 
game in the Rockies and elsewhere. Characteristically 

121 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

enough, small game had no attraction for him, and it is 
doubtful whether he ever shot a rabbit. Only when the 
beast had some chance against the hunter did sport 
appeal to him, and, naturally enough, the game that 
seemed most to his taste was the grizzly bear of the 
Rockies, that incarnation of strength, fury, and cunning. 

When Mr. Roosevelt arrived in the Rocky Mountain 
country and announced his intention of tracking the 
grizzly bear, the toughs of the region declared their 
intention of "doing him up." He was a tenderfoot. One 
of them w^ent so far as to send a message to Roosevelt to 
the effect that if he proceeded to track the grizzlies there 
"would be shooting. Upon receipt of the message Roose- 
velt inquired where this person with the propensity for 
shooting lived, and rode at once into his camp. The man, 
however, had forgotten why he w^anted to shoot. 

That incident put an end to any inclination to treat 
Roosevelt as a tenderfoot, and before the hunting cam- 
paign was ended he had won the respect of all those 
rough men of the West, and when the time came many 
of those who had been ready to '*do him up" as a tender- 
foot were the most eager to follow him into the jungles 
of Cuba. 

Kills His First Buffalo 

The first guide of Mr. Roosevelt in a buffalo hunt, 
Ferris by name, has told us about it. On a September 
day in 1883 the future President arrived at a lonely 
railroad station, with the buffalo ranges fifty miles away 
over a badly broken country. The guide describes Roose- 
velt as a "thin young man, plainly dressed." 

"It meant hard work to get a buffalo at that time," 
says Ferris, "and whether the thin young man could 
stand the trip was a question, but Roosevelt was on 

122 



LIFE ON THE EANCH 

horseback and he rode better than I did, and could stand 
just as much knocking about as I could. 

"In the first night out, when we were twenty-five or 
thirty miles from a settlement, we went into camp on the 
open prairie, with our saddle blankets over us, our horses 
picketed, and the picket ropes tied about the horns of our 
saddles, which we used for pillows. In the middle of the 
night there was a rush, our pillows were swept from 
under our heads and our horses went tearing off over the 
prairie, frightened by wolves. 

''Roosevelt was up and off in a minute after the 
horses. 

"On the fourth or fifth day out, I think it was, our 
horses pricked up their ears, and I told Roosevelt there 
was a buffalo close at hand. We dismounted and 
advanced to a big 'washout' near, peered over its edge, 
and there stood a huge buffalo bull, calmly feeding and 
unaware of our presence. 

" 'Hit Mm where that patch of red shows on his side,' 
said I, 'and you've got him.' 

"Roosevelt was cool as a cucumber, took a careful 
aim, and fired. Out came the buffalo from the washout, 
with blood pouring from his mouth and nose. "You've 
got him,' I shouted, and so it proved, for the buffalo 
plunged a few steps and fell." 

The Roosevelt Home Ranch 

So much has been said of Mr. Roosevelt as a ranch- 
man that one cannot refrain from quoting his own 
description of the Elkhorn Ranch and its surroundings: 

"My home ranch lies on both sides of the Little Mis- 
souri, the nearest ranchman above me being about twelve, 
and the nearest below me about ten miles distant. The 
general course of the stream here is northerly, but, while 

123 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

flowing through my ranch, it takes a great westerly reach 
of some three miles, walled in, as always, between chains 
of steep, high bluffs, half a mile or more apart. The 
stream twists down through the valley in long sweeps, 
leaving oval wooded bottoms, first on one side and then 
on the other ; and in an open glade among the thick grow- 
ing timber stands the long, low house, of hewm logs. 

''Just in front of the ranch veranda is a line of old 
cottonwoods that shade it during the fierce heats of 
summer, rendering it always cool and pleasant. But a 
few feet beyond these trees comes the cut-off bank of 
the river, through whose broad, sandy bed the shallow 
stream winds as if lost, except when a freshet fills it from 
brim to brim ^vith foaming yellow water. The bluffs that 
wall in the river valley curve back in semi-circles, rising 
from its alluvial bottom generally as abrupt cliffs, but 
often as steep, grassy slopes that lead up to great level 
plateaus ; and the line is broken every mile or two by the 
entrance of a coulee; or dry creek, whose head branches 
may be twenty miles back. Above us, where the river 
comes round the bend, the valley is very narrow, and the 
high buttes abounding rise sheer and barren, into scalped 
hill peaks and naked knife-blade ridges. The other build- 
ings stand in the same open glade with the ranch house, 
the dense growth of cottonwoods and matted, thorny 
underbrush making a wall all about through which we 
have chopped our wagon roads and trodden out our own 
bridle paths. The cattle have now trampled down this 
brush a little, but deer still lie in it, only a couple of 
hundred yards from the house ; and from the door some- 
times in the evening one can see them peer out into the 
open or make their way down, timidly and cautiously, to 
drink at the river. The stable, sheds, and other out- 

124 



LIFE ON THE RANCH 

buildings, with the hayricks and the pens for such cattle 
as we bring in during winter, are near the house; the 
patch of fenced garden land is on the edge of the woods ; 
and near the middle of the glade stands the high, circular 
horse corral, with a snubbing-post in the center, and a 
wing built from one side of the gate entrance, so that the 
saddle band can be driven in without trouble. ' ' 

Not a Broncho Buster 

When Mr. Roosevelt went into the cattle business, he 
started mth five hundred steers, and w^e are told: '*He 
worked for a part of a season as a cowboy. He had his 
own 'string' of horses and they were as ugly and ill-tem- 
pered as the majority of cow-horses. He was not a 
broncho-breaker, as he has been pictured to be, and he 
took no unnecessary chances in mounting or endeavoring 
to tame an especially ugly horse. But he did not shrink 
from riding his own horses when they cut up the custo- 
mary capers of mustangs, and although he was some- 
times thrown and on one or two occasions pretty badly 
bruised and hurt, he stuck to his mounts until he had 
mastered them." 

One of the early and useful friends of Mr. Roosevelt 
in the Wild West was the late Colonel William F. Cody, 
the famous Buffalo Bill, and many a wild ride they had. 
Their friendship lasted to the day of Cody's death. 

In his life on the ranch, Mr. Roosevelt realized all the 
benefits he had anticipated, and it appealed to him because 
''the charm of ranch life comes in its freedom, and the 
vigorous open-air existence it forces a man to lead." 

On his own ranch he experienced the very hardest part 
of the work. On one occasion he was for thirt5^-six hours 
in the saddle, dismounting only to change horses or to eat. 

125 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

At another time he was helping to bring a thousand 
head of young cattle down to his lower range. At night 
Ue and a cowboy stood guard. The cattle had been with- 
out water that day, and in their thirst they tried to break 
away. In the darkness Mr. Roosevelt could dimly see 
the shadowy outlines of the frantic herd. With whip 
and spurs he circled around the herd, turning back the 
l^easts at one point just in time to wheel and keep them 
in at another. After an hour of violent exertion, by 
which time he was dripping \^ith sweat, he and his com- 
panion finally quieted the herd. 

On still another occasion he was out on the plains 
when a regular blizzard came. The cattle began to drift 
before the storm. They were frightened and maddened 
by the quick, sharp flashes of lightning and the stinging 
rain. The men darted to and fro before them and beside 
them, heedless of danger, checking them at each point 
where they threatened to break through. The thunder 
was terrific. Peal followed peal. Each flash of lightning 
Ishowed a dense ray of tossing horns and staring eyes. 
At last, however, when the storm was raging in fury, 
and when it seemed impossible to hold the herd together 
any longer, the corrals were reached, and by desperate 
efforts Mr. Roosevelt and his companions managed to 
turn the herds into the barns. It was such work as this 
that brought the future President self-reliance and hardi- 
hood and made him in later life a firm advocate of horse- 
manship. 



126 



CHAPTER VI 
RETURN TO PUBLIC LIFE 

Candidate for Mayor of New York — Second Marriage — 
Ideal Domestic Life — Civil Service Commissioner — 
Police Commissioner of New York — His Unusual 
Methods — Resigns to Become Secretary of the Navy. 

Bronzed by the outdoor life, and teeming with hard- 
won vitality, Mr. Roosevelt returned to New York from 
his ranch in 1886 on the eve of a mayoralty campaign. 
His return was in reality a recall, for in his absence he 
had been nominated by an independent Committee of One 
Hundred and by the Republican party as the Republican 
candidate for Mayor of New York against Abram S. 
Hewitt, who had been nominated by Tammany. Local 
Republicanism had concluded that one known so widely 
as a reformer, through his work in the Legislature, would 
make an excellent candidate against the Democratic 
choice. 

But there was also in the race the noted apostle of 
the single tax idea, Henry George, as the candidate of the 
United Labor party, and a hot campaign resulted. 

In accepting the nomination of the independent Com- 
mittee of One Hundred, Mr. Roosevelt wrote : 

''The worst evils that affect our local government arise 
from and are the inevitable results of the mixing up of 
city affairs with the party politics of the nation and of 

127 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the State. The lines upon which national parties divide 
have no necessary connection with the business of the 
city. Such connection opens the way to countless schemes 
of public pbinder and civic corruption. I earnestly depre- 
cate all attempts to introduce any class or caste feeling 
into the mayoralty contest." 

Nevertheless, the appeal to these very feelings was 
strongly made in this campaign. Something very much 
like a panic was created among the business classes, with 
the result that thousands of voters forsook party, and 
doubtless influenced to some extent by the high qualifica- 
tions of Mr. He^\4tt, cast their votes for the Tammany 
nominee in their dread lest Plenry George be elected. The 
result was that Mr. Hewitt was chosen and Roosevelt 
sustained his first defeat as a candidate for public office. 
He came out third in the fight, with a total of 60,435 votes, 
against the 90,552 for Hewitt and 68,110 for Henry 
George. Roosevelt and his cohorts got whatever happi- 
ness they could out of the fact that his vote — in propor- 
tion to the total number of votes cast — showed the big- 
gest total ever before cast for a Republican mayoralty 
candidate in Manhattan. 

His Second Marriage 

Soon after the election in 1886 Mr. Roosevelt sailed 
for England, and there married Miss Edith Kermit 
Carow. The ceremon}- took place in the famous St. 
George's Church, Hanover Square, London, and the 
officiating clergyman was a canon of the English church 
who was a cousin of the bride. 

Though married in London, Mrs. Roosevelt, who sur- 
vives the Colonel, is an American and a New Yorker by 
birth. Her great-grandfather, however, Benjamin Lee, 

128 

















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President and Mrs. Roosevelt, with Kermit, Archie, Ethel, 
Quentin and Theodore, Jr. 




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The Ride from Laramie to Cheyenne, Wyoming. From left to right — W. W. Daley, 

Otto Gramm, Senator Warren, N. K. Boswell, Joseph Lefors, President 

Roosevelt, Dr. Rixey, F. A. Hadsell, J. S. Atherly and Fred Porter. 

Seth Bullock and W. L. Park are behind the others on the right. 




At a Barbecue, Bismarck, North Dakota, Where President Roosevelt Enjoyed 
Himself Among Men After His Own Heart. 



r 



\^': 




ftETURN TO PUBLIC LIFE 

was an Engiisliman who served in the British Navy dnr- 
ing the War of the Revolution. At one time he was sen- 
tenced to be shot for disobe}T.ng orders concerning prison- 
ers in his care. He disobeyed them because he believed 
the orders to be unjust and his life was saved through 
the intercession of a brother-officer who afterwards 
became William IV, the first sailor King of Great Britain. 
Benjamin Lee came to America after the Revolution and 
gained a commission as captain in the United States 
Navy. 

Another great-grandfather of Mrs. Roosevelt fought 
at Bunker Hill under General Putnam. She is descended 
from an old family of French Huguenots who settled in 
New York about the time that the founder of the Roose- 
velts came from Holland. 

Mr. Roosevelt and Miss Carow had known each other 
since childhood, she and his sister being schoolmates. 
Their union was a singularly fortunate and con- 
genial one, blessed by happiness that was only ended 
by death. Of their marriage four sons and a daugh- 
ter were born, Theodore, Jr., Kermit, Archibald, 
Quentin, and Ethel. Only the close friends of Colonel 
Roosevelt comprehended his love of family, his adoration 
of domestic simplicity and, indeed, what an immense part 
Mrs. Roosevelt played in his career. She was very often 
the restraining influence upon his characteristic impul- 
siveness. 

Ideal Domestic Life 

No married couple ever lived a more happy, tranquil 
life. Mrs. Roosevelt has been noted for her graceful 
mastery of every social situation and few Presidential 
ladies that ever adorned the White House had more suc- 
cess than she in cultivating and preserving all of the 

129 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

traditions of dignified hospitality that belonged to the 
mansion of Presidents. 

Up to the day of his sudden and lamented death, 
Colonel Roosevelt never failed to pass the highest praise 
and the most fragrant and enduring tributes to Mrs. 
Roosevelt. "No woman in the history of the world," 
said a recent writer, ''had so many opportunities to enjoy 
the limelight of public applause and yet, with modesty, 
refrained. In Mrs. Roosevelt we see the devoted, lo\'ing 
wife and mother who illuminates in her graceful modesty 
the highest type of genuine womanhood." 

Ignored by the Bosses 

On his return to America, some months after his mar- 
riage, Mr. Roosevelt took up his literary work and 
resumed his political connections in New York. But the 
bosses, having learned to know him, and to know that he 
could not be ''used," gave him no chance to get into a 
position where he could make trouble for them. They did 
their little best to ignore him. 

Still owning the Elkhorn Ranch in North Dakota, 
Mr. Roosevelt passed most of his vacations on the great 
plains for several years more, though his active ranching 
days were done. The family life claimed him, but his 
opportunities for public service were at hand. 

In the Presidential campaign of 1888 he w^ent on the 
stump for Benjamin Harrison. When Harrison was 
elected he tendered his services to the new administra- 
tion, and hoped to be appointed Assistant Secretary of 
State. But James G. Blaine was the new Secretary of 
State, and he had reason to remember his young New 
York opponent in the Chicago convention of 1884. Mr. 
Roosevelt therefore was not appointed to the State 
Department. His destiny was already at work. 

130 



RETURN TO PUBLIC LIFE 

Civil Service Commissioner 

In May, 1889, President Harrison remembered Roose- 
velt's fight in the New York State Assembly for Civil 
Service reform, and appointed him a United States Civil 
Service Commissioner. Immediately he jumped into a 
programme of Civil Service uplift that met with instant 
opposition from Congressmen, largely from the South 
and Southwest, who saw their patronage privileges going 
by the board if the Roosevelt programme was effected. 

Thereupon Commissioner Roosevelt executed what 
was considered a brilliant coup ; he instituted the practice 
of having the examinations for positions in Washington 
held in different states; and straightway many a Con- 
gressman who knew by this plan pet constituents would 
have to take examinations under the eyes of men who 
often were not of the same political faith, became con- 
verted on the spot to the beauties of civil service. 

For six years his constant warfare with the spoilsmen 
kept up an unending commotion among the politicians. 
He thought nothing of antagonizing even the greatest 
leaders in the Senate. 

When he became president of the Civil Service Com- 
mission 14,000 Government offices were under Civil Serv- 
ice rules; when he left, in 1895, to run the New York 
police, 40,000 offices were under Civil Service rules, and 
the increase was due chiefly to his energy and persistence. 
He served throughout Harrison's administration, and 
was retained in office by President Cleveland, whom he 
had helped, ten years before, to establish the Civil Service 
on a firmer basis in New York State. 

His six years spent at Washington as Civil Service 
Commissioner proved a splendid training for Roose- 
velt in a wider field than he had hitherto entered. He had 

131 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

won the friendship and regard of public men from all 
parts of the country; even those who were not in entire 
sympathy ^vith the reforms which he represented recog- 
nized his sincerity, fairness, and energy. 

Mr. Roosevelt's attitude toward Ci\dl Seiwice and 
the urgent need of it is succinctly set forth in the opening 
of one of his essays on that subject. *'No question of 
internal administration," he declared, "is so important 
to the United States as the question of Civil Service 
reform, because the spoils system, which can be sup- 
planted only through the agencies which have found 
expression in the act creating the Ci\^l Service Commis- 
sion has been for seventy years the most potent of all the 
forces tending to bring about the degradation of our 
politics. No republic can permanently endure when its 
politics are corrupt and base ; and the spoils system, the 
application in political life of the degrading doctrine that 
to the \dctor belong the spoils, produces corruption and 
degradation. The man who is in politics for the offices 
might just as well be in politics for the money he can get 
for his vote, so far as the general good is concerned. 
* * * The worst enemies of the republic are the dem- 
agogue and the corruptionist. The spoils-monger and 
the spoils-seeker invariably breed the bribe-taker and the 
bribe-giver, the embezzler of public funds, and the cor- 
rupter of voters. Ci"vil Service reform is not merely a 
movement to better public service. It achieves this end 
too; but its main purpose is to raise the tone of public 
life, and it is in this direction that its effects have been of 
incalculable good to the whole community. ' ' 

Police Commissioner of New York 
Mr. Roosevelt resigned as Civil Service Commissioner 
May 5, 1895, and on May 24 accepted the appointment of 

132 



RETURN TO PUBLIC LIFE 

Police Commissioner of New York City, tendered him 
by Ma>or Strong. His associates on the board were 
Andrew D. Parker, Frederick D. Grant, and Avery D. 
Andrews. Mr. Roosevelt was chosen president of the 
board, and from the first stamped his personality on the 
department. 

The election of Mayor Strong had been caused by the 
Lexow exposures of police corruption in New York, and 
the new Mayor realized that the problem of police man- 
agement would be the crucial one of his administration. 
He had therefore urged Mr. Roosevelt to take charge of 
it, and the successful Civil Service Commissioner resigned 
for that express purpose. 

The new board found the force in a thoroughly demor- 
alized and disorganized condition. Its first effort was to 
bring order out of chaos by enforcing discipline and 
substituting dismissals for the absurdly light penalties 
heretofore imposed for insubordination and infraction 
of the pohce regulations. In twenty months there were 
169 dismissals, as compared with 76 in the four years 
preceding. 

A storm immediately burst about Mr. Roosevelt's 
head, almost as great as that which he encountered in 
reforming the Civil Service. He entered vigorously upon 
the reorganization of the police force, and demanded the 
rigid enforcement of all laws and ordinances. He was 
warned by cautious friends that other commissioners had 
tried the same thing and had failed; that the force was 
so honeycombed with petty jealousies and favoritism and 
blackmail that the board could never ascertain the truth 
about what the men were doing. Roosevelt, though he 
knew he had a Gibraltar of corruption to fight, smiled 
and said : ''Well, we will see about that," and see about 

133 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

it he did literally, for he personally sought the patrolmen 
on their beats at unexpected hours of the night, inter- 
viewed them as to their duties and whenever one was 
found derelict he was promptly reprimanded or dis- 
missed. The plan had a sudden and wholesome effect, 
for no roundsman, no sergeant or police captain knew at 
what hour the Commissioner might turn up and catch 
him napping. 

His Unusual Methods 

The young Police Commissioner's unboanded genius 
for the unusual immediately began to function. By 
strolling Manhattan streets late into the night he got 
evidence at tirst hand. He antagonized Jimmy Wakely, 
then an all-powerful prize fight backer and saloon-keeper, 
who had been led to believe the excise laws did not apply 
to the Wakely ** place of business." He made police 
station speeches to astonished bluecoats, who for the first 
time heard a superior tell them that merit, not Tammany 
pull, would result in promotion. 

He had taken the job on the condition that he would 
have free rein, and thereupon he drove headlong into the 
work. As president of the board he started in to practice 
what he preached, but the old Gibraltar reared a new 
pinnacle in the form of local laws, which said that the 
power of substantial reward was vested in the chief of 
police, not in the Police Board. 

Tom Byrnes, famed as a detective throughout the land, 
was the chief of police. When Roosevelt went into the 
Police Board and insisted on enforcing the excise laws 
literally. Chief Byrnes said : *'It will break him. He will 
have to yield in time. He is only human." With the 
idea of beginning the reform at the top Roosevelt con- 
vinced his board colleagues that the ** great" Tom Byrnes 

134 



RETURN TO PUBLIC LIFE 

should go, and a whole city started at the audacity of the 
idea. But into the Police Board rooms the mighty detec- 
tive was summoned for an explosive interview. Ten min- 
utes after the dust had settled Tom Byrnes, the mighty, 
had sent in his resignation. 

Peter Conlin, acting chief, was promoted to Byrnes' 
job, the Commission figuring that Conlin, supposedly a 
weak man, would take orders and carry them out. But, 
unknown to Commissioner Roosevelt, Commissioner 
Parker did not side altogether with the Roosevelt views of 
police management, and Parker had great influence over 
Chief Conlin. 

Reform Plans Smashed 

For a year Conlin did Roosevelt's bidding. Then the 
chief grew headstrong to the point where Roosevelt found 
himself unable to reward policemen as he had promised 
or to punish where he had threatened. He faced about 
and began to fight from a new angle ; he tried to get reme- 
dial legislation passed that would solve his police diffi- 
culties. He failed, and his reorganization work as 
planned went to smash. 

Policemen were growing rich, he knew, by protecting 
saloon-keepers that steadily broke the Sunday excise law. 
Out came the Roosevelt dictum — despite protests from 
his friends that he was threatening the future success of 
his own entire career — that every saloon in Manhattan 
must obey the statute, which said saloons must close from 
Saturday night to Monday. 

Shrieks of anguish arose the length and breadth of the 
island. Roosevelt's local popularity got a temporary set- 
back. Chief Conlin seized the chance to be "^\ith the 
crowd" and defied his Commissioner. The sum total of 
the whole excise crusade demonstrated that there were 

135 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

many honest policemen who would go straight if encour- 
aged; that there were Police Commissioners who dared 
do their duty; that traces of a rise in the morale of the 
whole force were noticeable, and that — according to the 
Eoosevelt figures — Sunday drinking had been cut do\\Ti 
**40 per cent," while the wave lasted. 

Scoffing Became Cheers 

At the height of Commissioner Roosevelt's unpopu- 
larity a monster parade was organized to show New 
York's disgust with his policy. It paraded vdih such 
signs as "Send the Police Czar to Russia." A perfunc- 
tory in\dtation, or, perhaps, a sarcastic one, had been sent 
to him, and to everybody's astonishment he arrived early 
and took his seat on the reviewing stand. 

Among the foremost of the paraders was a German, 
who looked back with pride on the great host behind him. 
Waving his hand, he shouted in a stentorian voice : 

' ' Nun, wo ist der Roosevelt ? " ( ' ' Where is Roosevelt 
now?") 

A beaming face, with a bulldog grin, looked dowm from 
the stand. 

**Hier bin ich. Was -wilst du, Kamerad?" ("Here I 
am. What do you want, comrade?") 

The German stopped, paralyzed with astonishment. 
Then an answering grin overspread his o\\ti face. 

"Hurrah for Roosevelt!" he shouted. His followers 
took up the cry, and those who came to sc^ff remained 
to cheer. 

Under Commissioner Roosevelt a system of rewards 
for bravery and meritorious conduct was inaugurated, 
which had a salutaiy effect on the morale of the police 
force. He abolished the annual police parade, declaring 
"We'll parade when we need not be afraid to show our- 
selves. ' ' 

136 



RETURN TO PUBLIC LIFE 

It is, however, ^^dth the enforcement of the excise law 
that the name of Commissioner Roosevelt was always 
most closely associated. When he went into office it was 
almost a truism that the excise law could not be enforced 
in New York City. The Roosevelt board made up their 
minds to enforce it, with the result that for the first time 
in its history the excise law was thoroughly and honestly 
administered. 

Of Roosevelt's time in the Police Department, Jacob 
Riis significantly says, *'A much larger percentage of 
policemen than many imagine look back to that time as 
the golden age of the department, when every man had a 
show on his merits, and many of their votes are quietly 
cast on election day for the things 'Teddy' stands for." 

His Attitude Toward Labor 

With regard to Mr. Roosevelt's attitude toward labor 
when Police Commissioner, Mr. Riis says: 

'*! had watched police administration in Mulberry 
Street for nearly twenty years, and I had seen many 
sparring matches between workingmen and the Police 
Board. Generally, there was bad faith on one side ; not 
infrequently on both. It was human that some of the 
labor men should misinterpret Mr. Roosevelt's motives 
when, as President of the Board, he sent w^ord that he 
wanted to meet them and talk strike troubles over with 
them. They got it into their heads, I suppose, that he 
had come to crawl; but they were speedily undeceived. 
I can see his face now, as he checked the first one who 
hinted at trouble. I fancy that man can see it, too — in 
his dreams. 

^' 'Gentlemen,' said Mr. Roosevelt, 'I have come to 
get your point of view, and see if we can't agree to help 

137 



LIFE OF THEODOKE ROOSEVELT 

each other out. But we want to make it clear to our- 
selves at the start that the greatest damage any working- 
man can do to his cause is to counsel violence. Order 
must be maintained; and make no mistake, I will main- 
tain it.'" 

The men cheered him. There was perfect confidence 
on both sides. Roosevelt said, ''We understand each 
other, and will get along." 

But the Gibraltar of corruption was too strong in 
those days even for a Roosevelt. He resigned from the 
department on April 17, 1897, to accept an appointment 
from the McKinley administration as Assistant Secre- 
tary of the Navy. Here was a job to his hking. 



138 



CHAPTER VII 
HIS WORK FOR THE NAVY 

Assistant Secretary of the Navy Department — His 
Record as a Naval Author — Cutting Red Tape — 
Foresaw War with Spain — His Preparedness Order 
to Dewey — Improved American Gunnery, 

Theodore Roosevelt had always been interested in the 
United States Navy, with the interest of a patriotic citi- 
zen born on the seaboard and of a far-seeing young man 
of affairs. That laudable interest, which he possessed in 
full measure when he went to Washington in March, 
1897, as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, he retained 
throughout his subsequent career, and it was strongly 
demonstrated in the public utterances of the closing years 
of his life, when his beloved country was at war and the 
Navy emerged triumphant from the test. 

Mr. Roosevelt's interest in naval affairs was at first 
that of an author and historian. In his college days at 
Harvard he had written some chapters of his ''Naval 
History of the War of 1812," which was published in 
1882, two years after his graduation, when he was twen- 
ty-four years old. The subject attracted him because he 
believed that the existing histories, read by the American 
people, were one-sided in their treatment of the facts. 

His naval history was so impartial and so successful 
that the critics of the greatest authority commended him, 
declaring that ''the impartiality of the author's judg- 

139 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

raent and the thoroughness with which the evidence is 
sifted are remarkable and worthy of high praise." As 
a result, when an English publisher was preparing a 
history of the British Navy, Mr. Roosevelt was asked to 
A\Tite the history of its exploits in the War of 1812. Thus 
he made himself an authority on naval affairs at an age 
when most young men are authorities only on sports, if 
on amiihing at all. 

It was therefore with alacrity, if not eagerness, that 
Mr. Roosevelt accepted the appointment to the Na\^ 
Department. He felt that it was urgently necessar>^ to 
strengthen the naval arm as a means of national defense, 
and he welcomed the opportunity to take part in its 
upbuilding. 

Cutting Red Tape 

He had not been long at Washington before he discov- 
ered that many e\'ils had grown up that would seriously 
handicap the department if suddenly brought face to face 
^rith the problem of preparing for war. He at once set 
under way a general overhauling of the various bureaus, 
cutting red tape in every direction. The list of merchant 
vessels that could be drafted for an auxiliary nav>^ was 
incomplete and faulty, and he undertook to revise it. He 
framed an important personnel bill. He started the navy 
on a course of real gunneiy so ao to improve marksman- 
ship. He distributed ships and supplies where they would 
be of most help and use if a storm burst, particularly 
remembering to place ships in Pacific waters, where they 
might loaf expectantly in the general neighborhood of 
the Philippines. 

Scarcely had he got his feet under a Navy Department 
desk when he asked for— and got— $800,000 for powder 
and shell for the nav'A-. A few months later he wanted 

140 



WOKK FOR THE NAVY 

$500,000 more. The representatives of the people asked 
him, aghast, what had become of the ammunition pur- 
chased with the $800,000 handed to his department. 

** Great heavens !" he cried, equally aghast at the ques- 
tion. *' What do you suppose we did mth it? We fired it. 
And this new half-million dollars' worth of ammunition 
will all be exploded thirty days after we get it. What 
else do you want to know, gentlemen ? ' ' 

Foresaw War With Spain 

From the start he scented distant, and not so very 
distant, trouble ^vith Spain. With all the thunder he used 
a score of years later while booming for preparedness for 
the greatest of all wars. Assistant Secretary of the Navy 
Roosevelt, back in 1897, thundered for naval prepared- 
ness for a Spanish war which he believed inevitable. He 
gave all the vigor of his being to the repair and general 
overhauling of what ships we then owned. With the 
utmost ardor he began to assemble ammunition, supplies 
of all kinds. 

For command of the Asiatic fleet certain politicians 
were pushing an officer of the respectable, commonplace 
type. Roosevelt determined to get the appointment for 
Commodore Dewey, who was that officer's junior and who 
had no political backing, but whose career Roosevelt had 
been watching. He enlisted the services of Senator Red- 
field Proctor, whom he knew to be close to the President, 
checkmated the politicians and secured the appointment 
which resulted in so much glory for the American Navy. 

AVhen at last the Spanish War actually came in 1898, 
Roosevelt's tireless energy supplemented the work of 
Secretary Long in an invaluable manner. Upon him 
devolved the duty of organizing and refitting the auxil- 
iaries and purchasing colliers. His quick decision and 

141 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

prompt action in many matters of importance had an 
important bearing on the subsequent naval successes of 
Manila Bay and Santiago. It was he who urged success- 
fully that Admiral Dewey be retained in command of the 
Asiatic station when it was proposed to supplant him, and 
one of his last official acts was to write the famous dis- 
patch which sent Dewey to Manila. 

When the last of the Spanish AVar smoke had settled, 
and the experts began to check things up, it was generally 
admitted that much of the navy's success had been due to 
gunners who had gained their expertness while firing 
Roosevelt's real ammunition in preparation for the scrim- 
mage. The shooting was not good in that war, but had it 
not been for Mr. Roosevelt's ideas, it w^ould have been 
atrocious. 

As it was, we proved to be better marksmen than the 
Spaniards, but Mr. Roosevelt was not satisfied. He wrote 
later in his autobiography : '*I grew uneasy when I stud- 
ied the small portion of hits to shots made by our vessels 
in battle. When I was President I took up the matter and 
speedily became convinced that we needed to revolution- 
ize our whole training in marksmanship. ' ' 

He did revolutionize it and made the United States 
fleet, gun for gun, at least three times as effective in point 
of fighting efficiency in 1908 as it was in 1902. 

Ordered Dev^ey to Prepare 

In the records of the Navy Department, Theodore 
Roosevelt has left many memorials, but none more strik- 
ing than an order cabled to Admiral Dewey on February 
25, 1898, nearly two months before war w^as declared on 
Spain, in which the first step toward American occupa- 
tion of the Philippine Islands was taken. 

142 



WORK FOR THE NAVY 

Mr. Roosevelt, as Assistant Secretary, issued the 
order without the knowledge or approval of Secretary 
Long, and in his autobiography he described this as one 
of the times when he seized opportunities presented by 
the absence of the Secretary to take steps toward prepar- 
ation for war which he regarded as vital. 

Mr. Roosevelt had repeatedly urged that prompt 
action be taken to make ready for war. He believed 
Admiral, then Commodore Dewey, commanding the Asia- 
tic fleet, should be given advance instructions. No 
instructions were sent to Dewey, however, and when Mr. 
Long departed from Washington on February 25, leaving 
Roosevelt as Acting Secretary, this order in Roosevelt's 
name went over the cables : 

"Dewey, Hongkong: — Secret and confidential. Order the 
squadron, except Monocacy, to Hongkong. Keep full of coal. 
In event of declaration of war on Spain your duty will be to 
see that Spanish squadron does not leave Asiatic coast, and 
then offensive operations in Philippine Islands. Keep Olympia 
(Dewey's flagship at Manila Bay, previously ordered home) 
until further orders. (Signed) Roosevelt." 

In discussing this and similar steps he took, Mr. 
Roosevelt told, in his account of his own life, of what he 
regarded as the greatest weakness of the navy at that 
time, its poor gunnery. He recalled many letters written 
on this subject by the American naval attache at Paris, 
then Lieutenant, now Vice-Admiral Sims, and declared 
that this young officer alone seemed to realize fully the 
deplorable state of the navy in this regard on the eve of 
war. 

Improved American Gunnery 

Subsequently, as President, Mr. Roosevelt singled out 
Sims and placed him at the head of naval gunnery, which 

143 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

resulted in development of the present high standards of 
marksmanship in the United States Nav}'. 

Mr. Roosevelt then coined the phrase that '^only holes 
mean hits, and the shots that hit are the shots that 
count. ' ' 

The keen study given to naval matters by Mr. Roose- 
velt while Assistant Secretary was shown later in his first 
message as President to Congress, which included more 
than one hundred specific recommendations as to the 
navy. Throughout the time he was President, Mr. Roose- 
velt showed the keenest interest in the development of the 
navy. Finally he sent the Atlantic fleet, under Rear 
Admiral (Fighting Bob) Evans, on its memorable cruise 
around the world, the first and last voyage of its kind 
ever undertaken by any battle fleet. 

The Navy Our Peacemaker 

Mr. Roosevelt's more recent views on the navy were 
expressed in his volume on "America and the World 
War," published in 1915 (Charles Scribner's Sons), in 
which he said : 

"Until an efficient world league for peace is in more 
than mere process of formation the United States must 
depend upon itself for protection where its vital interests 
are concerned. All the youth of the nation should be 
trained in warlike exercises and in the use of arms — as 
well as in the indispensable virtues of courage, self- 
restraint, and endurance — so as to be fit for national 
defense. But the right arm of the nation must be its 
navy. Our navy is our most efficient peacemaker. In 
order to use the navy effectively we should clearly define 
to ourselves the policy we intend to follow and the Umits 
over which we expect our power to extend. Our own 
coasts, Alaska, Hawaii, and the Panama Canal and its 

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WORK FOR THE NAVY 

approaches should represent the sphere in which we 
should expect to be able, single-handed, to meet and mas- 
ter any opponent from overseas. 

The Philippine Question 

"I exclude the PhiUppines. This is because I feel 
that the present administration has definitely committed 
us to a course of action which will make the early and 
complete severance of the Philippines from us not merely 
desirable but necessary. I have never felt that the Phil- 
ippines were of any special use to us. But I have felt 
that we had a great task to perform there, and that a 
great nation is benefited by performing a great task. It 
was our bounden duty to work primarily for the interests 
of the Filipinos ; but it was also our bounden duty, inas- 
much as the entire responsibility lay upon us, to consult 
our own judgment and not theirs in finally deciding what 
was to be done. It was our duty to govern the islands or 
to get out of the islands. It was most certainly not our 
duty to take the responsibility of staying in the islands 
without governing them. Still less was it — or is it — our 
duty to enter into joint arrangements with other powers 
about the islands; arrangements of confused responsi- 
bility and divided power of the kind are sure to cause 
mischief. I had hoped that we would continue to govern 
the islands until we were certain that they were able to 
govern themselves in such fashion as to do justice to 
other nations and to repel injustice committed on them 
by other nations. To substitute for such government by 
ourselves either a government by the Filipinos with us 
guarantee!' g them against outsiders, or a joint guarantee 
between us and outsiders, would be folly. 

*'It is eminently desirable to guarantee the neutrality 
of small civilized nations which have a high social and 

145 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

cultural status and which are so advanced that they do 
not fall into disorder or commit wrong-doing on others. 
But it is eminently undesirable to guarantee the neutrah 
ity or sovereignty of an inherently weak nation which is 
impotent to preserve order at home, to repel assaults 
from abroad, or to refrain from doing wrong to outsiders. 
It is even more undesirable to give such a guarantee with 
no intention of making it really effective. That this is 
precisely what the present administration would be 
delighted to do has been shown by its refusal to live up to 
its Hague promises at the very time that it was making 
similar new international promises by the batch. To 
enter into a joint guarantee of neutrality which in emer- 
gencies can only be rendered effective by force of arms, 
is to incur a serious responsibility which ought to be 
undertaken in a serious spirit. To enter into it \yit\i no 
intention of using force, or of preparing force, in order 
at need to make it effective, represents the kind of silli- 
ness which is worse than wickedness. 

Should Keep Our Promises 

"Above all, we should keep our promises. The pres- 
ent administration was elected on the outright pledge of 
giving the Filipinos independence. Apparently its course 
in the Philippines has proceeded upon the theory that the 
Filipinos are now fit to govern themselves. Whatever 
may be our personal and individual beliefs in this matter, 
we ought not as a nation to break faith or even to seem 
to break faith. I hope therefore that the Filipinos will 
be given their independence at an early date, and without 
any guarantee from us which might in any way hamper 
our future action or commit us to staying on the Asiatic 
coast. I do not believe we should keep any foothold what- 
ever in the Philippines. Any kind of position by us in 

146 



WORK FOR THE NAVY 

the Philippines merely results in making them our heel of 
Achilles if we are attacked by a foreign power. They can 
be of no compensating benefit to us. If we were to retain 
complete control over them and to continue the course of 
action which in the past sixteen years has resulted in such 
immeasurable benefit for them, then I should feel that it 
was our duty to stay and work for them in spite of the 
expense incurred by us and the risk we thereby ran. But 
inasmuch as we have now promised to leave them and as 
we are now abandoning our power to work efiiciently for 
and in them, I do not feel that we are warranted in stay- 
ing in the islands in an equivocal position, thereby incur- 
ring great risk to ourselves without conferring any real 
compensating advantage, of a kind which we are bound 
to take into account, on the FiHpinos themselves. If the 
Filipinos are entitled to independence, then we are enti- 
tled to be freed from all the responsibility and risk which 
our presence in the islands entails upon us. 

''The great nations of southernmost South America, 
Brazil, the Argentine, and Chile, are now so far advanced 
in stabihty and power that there is no longer any need of 
applying the Monroe Doctrine as far as they are con- 
cerned ; and this also relieves us as regards Uruguay and 
Paraguay, the former of which is well advanced and 
neither of which has any interests with which we need 
particularly concern ourselves. As regards all these 
powers, therefore, we now have no duty save that doubt- 
less if they got into difficulties and desired our aid we 
would gladly extend it, just as, for instance, we would to 
Australia and Canada. But we can now proceed on the 
assumption that they are able to help themselves and 
that any help we should be required to give would be 
given by us as an auxiliary rather than as a principal. 

147 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

The Naval Problem 

**Our naval problem, therefore, is primarily to pro- 
vide for the protection and policing of Hawaii, Alaska, 
and the Panama Canal and its approaches. This offers a 
definite problem which should be solved by our naval men. 
It is for them, having in view the lessons taught by this 
war, to say what is the exact type of fleet we require, the 
number and kind of submarines, of destroyers, of mines, 
and of airships to be used against hostile fleets, in addi- 
tion to the cruisers and great fighting craft which must 
remain the backbone of the navy. Civilians may be com- 
petent to pass on the merits of the plans suggested by the 
naval men, but it is the naval men themselves who must 
make and submit the plans in detail. Lay opinion, how- 
ever, should keep certain elementary facts steadily in 
mind. 

**The navy must primarily be used for offensive pur- 
poses. Forts, not the navy, are to be used for defense. 
The only permanently efficient type of defensive is the 
offensive. A portion, and a very important portion, of 
our naval strength must be used with our own coast ordi- 
narily as a base, its striking radius being only a few score 
miles, or a couple of hundred at the outside. The events 
of this war have shown that submarines can play a tre- 
mendous part. We should develop our force of subma- 
rines and train the officers and crews who have charge of 
them to the highest pitch of efficiency — for they will be 
useless in time of war unless those aboard them have been 
trained in time of peace. These submarines, when used 
in connection with destroyers and with airships, can 
undoubtedly serve to minimize the danger of successful 
attack on our own shores. But the prime lesson of the 
war, as regards the navy, is that the nation A\dth a power- 

148 



WORK FOR THE NAVY 

ful seagoing navy, although it may suffer much annoy- 
ance and loss, yet is able on the whole to take the offensive 
and do great damage to a nation with a less powerful 
navy. Great Britain's naval superiority over Germany 
has enabled her completely to paralyze all Germany's sea 
commerce and to prevent goods from entering her ports. 
What is far more important, it has enabled the British to 
land hundreds of thousands of men to aid the French, and 
has enabled Canada and Australia to send a half -million 
men from the opposite ends of the earth to Great Britain. 
If Germany had had the more powerful navj, Great Brit- 
lain would now have suffered the fate of Belgium. * * * 
The Experience of 1898 

**It has been said that the United States never learns 
by experience but only by disaster. Such method of edu- 
cation may at times prove costly. The slothful or short- 
sighted citizens who are now misled by the cries of the 
ultra-pacifists would do well to remember events con- 
nected with the outbreak of the war with Spain. I was 
then Assistant Secretary of the Navy. At one bound our 
people passed from a condition of smug confidence that 
war never could occur (a smug confidence just as great 
as any we feel at present) to a condition of utterly unreas- 
oning panic over what might be done to us by a very weak 
antagonist. 

''One Governor of a seaboard State announced that 
none of the National Guard regiments would be allowed 
to respond to the call of the President, because they 
would be needed to prevent a Spanish invasion of that 
State— the Spaniards being about as likely to make such 
an invasion as we were to invade Timbuctoo or Turke- 
stan. One Congressman besought me to send a battleship 
to protect Jekyll Island, off the coast of Georgia. 

149 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Another Congressman asked me to send a battleship to 
protect a summer colony which centered around a large 
Atlantic-coast hotel in Connecticut. In my own neighbor- 
hood on Long Island, clauses were gravely inserted into 
the leases of property to the effect that if the Spaniards 
destroyed the property the leases should terminate. 
Chambers of commerce, boards of trade, municipal 
authorities, leading business men, from one end of the 
country to the other, hysterically demanded, each of them, 
that a ship should be stationed to defend some particular 
locality ; the theory being that our navy should be strung 
along both seacoasts, each ship by itself, in a purely 
defensive attitude — thereby making certain that even the 
Spanish navy could pick them all up in detail. 

''One railway president came to protest to me against 
the choice of Tampa as a point of embarkation for our 
troops, on the ground that his railway was entitled to its 
share of the profit of transporting troops and munitions 
of war, and that his railway went to New Orleans. The 
very Senators and Congressmen who had done everything 
in their power to prevent the building up and the efficient 
training of the navy screamed and shrieked loudest to 
have the navy diverted from its proper purpose and used 
to protect unimportant seaports. Surely our Congress- 
men and, above all, our people, need to learn that in time 
of crisis peace treaties are worthless, and the ultra-paci- 
fists of both sexes merely a burden on and a detriment to 
the country as a whole ; that the only permanently useful 
defensive is the offensive, and that the navy is properly 
the offensive weapon of the nation. 

"The navy of the TTnited States is the right arm of 
the United States and is emphatically the peacemaker. 
Woe to our country if we permit that right arm to become 
palsied or even to become flabby and inefficient!" 

150 



CHAPTER Vin 
THE ROUGH RIDERS 

Destruction of the "Maine''— Roosevelt Resigns from 
the Navy Department — Organizes the Rough Riders — 
Leonard Wood as Colonel — Record of the Regiment^ 
Las Guasimas and San Juan Hill — Praise from Gen- 
eral Wheeler— The Famous "Round Rohin"— Return 
to the United States. 

As early as June, 1897, Mr. Roosevelt, addressing the 
naval cadets at Annapolis, repeated Washington's warn- 
ing: "To be prepared for war is the most effectual 
means to promote peace," and with great emphasis he 
uttered these words: ''All the great masterful races 
have been fighting races. Cowardice in a race, as in an 
individual, is the unpardonable sin." 

Also about that time, a year before our clash of arms 
with Spain, he said : ''The enemies we may have to face 
will come from over the sea ; they may come from Europe, 
or they may come from Asia. Events move fast in the 
West ; but this generation has been forced to see that they 
move even faster in the oldest East. Our interests are as 
great in the Pacific as in the Atlantic, in the Hawaiian 
Islands as in the West Indies. Merely for the protection 
of our own shores we need a great navy; and what is 
more, we need it to protect our interests in the islands 
from which it is possible to command our shores, and to 
protect our commerce on the high seas." 

151 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

On the night of February 15, 1898, the United States 
battleship Maine was treacherously destroyed with hesivy 
loss of life, in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, while on a 
visit of courtesy to that "friendly" port. Captain Sigs- 
bee, of the sunken craft, appealed to the American people 
for the suspension of their judgment until an official 
investigation had determined the exact cause. But the 
case against the Spanish oppressors of Cuba had already 
been tried by American common sense and they were 
promptly deemed guilty of the fresh crime. 

It meant war — the inevitable war, foreseen by Theo- 
dore Roosevelt in the Navy Department. Thanks to his 
foresight and persistence in preparation, the fleet was 
ready. When on April 25, after a period of delay due to 
unpreparedness of other departments of the ser\dce, 
Congress declared war against Spain, Theodore Roose- 
velt obeyed the impulse that started him toward a place 
among the immortals of American history. He resigned 
his post as Assistant Secretary of the Navy to seek more 
active service in the war. The Secretary of the Navy, 
John D. Long, urged him to withhold his resignation and 
remain in the department where he was doing such valu- 
able service; but he had determined his course of duty, 
and proceeded to follow it. 

The routine work of a department even in war time, 
did not suit Mr. Roosevelt, and he determined to forsake 
the desk for the field. "There is nothing more for me to 
do here in Washington," he told the friends who expostu- 
lated with him. "I've got to go into the fight myself." 

At first he applied for a position on the staff of Gen- 
eral Fitzhugh Lee, the famous Southerner who had been 
detailed for service in Cuba. When he found out that he 
could not obtain that, he turned his attention to a project 

152 



THE ROUGH RIDERS 

that had long been a favorite with him. This project was 
the recruiting of a regiment of trained horsemen, includ- 
ing cowboys of the Western plains, polo players and fox- 
hunters of the East, men who could ''ride well and shoot 
straight" from every class and section of the country. 
The plan was approved by the War Department and 
thereupon the Roosevelt Rough Riders came into being. 

The Rush of Recruits 

Mr. Roosevelt threw himself enthusiastically into the 
work of organization. His name acted as a talisman in 
securing the right material, and the ranks of the regiment 
were soon filled. The scene of mobilization was San 
Antonio, Texas, and never was a regiment raised with 
greater ease or more enthusiasm. 

From all the West and all the East the Rough Riders 
came — ''guns barking, cayuses bucking ecstatically. Into 
San Anton' poured football halfbacks, college baseball 
stars, daredevils all the way from cattle mining towns in 
Montana to Sixth Avenue in New York; cow punchers 
who had 'dropped their man' for good in the Bad Lands, 
clubmen, seafarers, explorers, crack shots — adventurers 
all and splendid young Americans." 

Their mobilization had all the thrilling effect on the 
imagination of a country going to war against Spain that 
was lacking in the machinelike mobilization of the same 
nation going to war with Germany twenty years later. 

Leonard Wood Appointed Colonel 
Very wisely and with characteristic good judgment 
Theodore Roosevelt chose a secondary command, that of 
Lieutenant-Colonel, in the regiment he had raised. His 
influence secured the appointment as Colonel for his 
friend, Leonard Wood, one of the best soldiers in the 

153 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

service of the country — in those days forced to stand idly 
on the side lines as a mere physician to the White House, 
just as the same Leonard Wood was compelled to stand 
to one side during the bigger conflict that came twenty 
years later. 

Leonard Wood had the advantage of Roosevelt in that 
he had seen real fighting (which was rewarded with the 
treasured Congressional Medal of Honor) against the 
Apaches both as a medical and a line officer. He had also 
made a recent personal survey of the military situation 
and conditions in Cuba. 

The Rough Riders' Record 

When mobilization was completed and the Rough 
Riders had been partially equipped, the regiment was 
transferred from San Antonio to Tampa, Florida, to 
await orders. Roosevelt and Wood were eager for active 
service, and when Admiral Cervera's Spanish fleet locked 
itself in Santiago harbor, Roosevelt became con^-inced 
that the first land fighting was to take place at that point. 
He thereupon secured the attachment of his regiment to 
General Shafter's command, and when the latter was 
transferred to Cuban soil it was Roosevelt's prompt 
action that secured for his men the most coveted passage 
on army transports, when other less fortunate regiments 
were compelled to remain behind until all the fighting was 
over. Several troops of the Rough Riders, with all their 
horses, were also left behind. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt's conviction proved 
right. Li the first conflict with the Spanish, at Las Guasi- 
mas, near Santiago (June 24, 1898), the Rough Riders 
saw severe fighting and conducted themselves well. 
Before another engagement Colonel Wood was promoted 

154 



THE ROUGH RIDERS 

to Brigadier-General, and Colonel Roosevelt became com- 
mander of the regiment. 

The Rough Riders took part in the assault on San- 
tiago (July 1), Roosevelt displaj'ing great bravery and 
leading his men in person. Before the fighting was over, 
the death or wounding of the other commanding officers 
left him the ranking officer of the brigade. The regiment 
was under fire all the next day and night, but maintained 
the position on San Juan hill which it had won. The 
Rough Riders then lay in the trenches before the city 
until its surrender, Roosevelt being in command of the 
Second Brigade of the Cavalry Division, from the middle 
of July. 

Discipline and Fighting Ability 

Tales came back of a lack of formal discipline in the 
wild band under Colonel Roosevelt (now become ''The 
Colonel" for all time), but never was there a tale indicat- 
ing a lack of rough-and-tumble fighting ability. 

A lack of knowledge that at least a "sir" should be 
strung along the conversation occasionally when address- 
ing one's Colonel, did not seem to impede the rapidity of 
progress of the Rough Riders once they had got within 
sight of the battle smoke in Cuba; nor did it prevent 
them from giving a good account of themselves at Las 
Guasimas and around Santiago. 

Tales also sprang up, and still persist, that the Rough 
Riders blundered into a Spanish ambush, at Kettle Hill, 
and that only the opportune backing of the brave blacks 
of the Tenth Cavalry saved the Rough Riders from being 
smashed to smithereens; but all wars have inaccurate 
traditions ; and there was never a doubt as to the excellent 
record of the regiment the Colonel put into that war. 

155 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Nicknames in the Regiment 

In his book, "The Rough Riders," Colonel Roosevelt 
has given us an intimate glimpse of some of the charac- 
ters in the regiment, as follows : 

''The men generally gave one another nicknames, 
largely conferred in a spirit of derision, their basis lying 
in contrast. A brave but fastidious member of an East- 
ern club, who was serving in the ranks, was christened 

* Tough Ike'; and his bunMe, the man who shared his 
shelter-tent, and who was a decidedly rough cow-puncher, 
gradually acquired the name of *The Dude.' One 
unlucky and simple-minded range-rider, who had never 
been east of the great plains in his life, unwarily boasted 
that he had an aunt in New York, and ever afterward 
he went by the name of ' Metropolitan Bill. ' A huge red- 
headed Irishman was named * Sheeny Solomon. ' A young 
Jew who developed into one of the best fighters in the 
regiment accepted with entire equanimity the name of 

* Pork-chop. ' We had quite a number of professional 
gamblers who, I am bound to say, usually made good sol- 
diers. One who was almost abnormally quiet and gentle 
was called 'Hell-roarer'; while another who, in point of 
language and deportment, was his exact antithesis, was 
known as 'Prayerful James.' " 

The Famous "Round Robin" 

When the Rough Riders went into camp in the hills 
about El Caney, after the capture of the city of Santiago, 
it was the season of rains and the men suffered a good 
deal from exposure, while the food supplies were far 
from satisfactory. Then occurred the incident of the 
famous "round robin," or joint letter, addressed to Gen- 
eral Shafter. 

166 



THE ROUGH RIDERS 

The officers and men who had undergone the hard- 
ships of the campaign were anxious to return north to 
recuperate, now that the fighting was over for the time 
being. The damp summer season mth its malaria and 
yellow fever was affecting the health of the regiment, and 
casualties were unavoidable so long as it remained in 
Cuba. The men did not complain when there was fighting 
to be done, but they objected to being sacrificed to no 
good purpose. On August 4 all the general officers of 
General Shafter's command therefore united in a letter 
of protest asking that the troops be moved north, and 
declaring that ''this army must be moved at once or 
perish." 

The letter was written by Colonel Roosevelt, and was 
signed by Generals Chaffee, Bates, Sumner, Kent, Ames, 
and Wood. Folio-wing its receipt, General Shafter con- 
curred in its decision and officially transmitted to Wash- 
ington a request for the removal of the troops. At the 
same time the letter was made public, and public clamor 
was added to the official recommendation. There was a 
tendency in some quarters to criticize the method adopted 
by the signers as unmilitary and subversive of good disci- 
pline. War Secretary Alger declared that '4t would be 
impossible to exaggerate the mischievous and wicked 
effects" of it. But the end sought was accomplished, and 
within three days the entire command w^as ordered north. 
Colonel Roosevelt and his Rough Riders were ordered to 
Camp Wyckoff (afterwards Camp Wheeler) at Montauk 
Point, N. Y., where they arrived on August 15, 1898. 

The official reports show that the casualties in Colonel 
Roosevelt's regiment in Cuba were both more numerous 
and more severe than those of any of the regular regi- 
ments engaged. The Rough Riders lost more officers 

157 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

than any other regiment ; they had more men killed, more 
men wounded, and fewer missing. They nobly sustained 
the honor and traditions of the American volunteer sol- 
dier, though there was "glory enough for all." 
Praised by General Wheeler 
General Joseph Wheeler (the beloved '* Joe" Wheeler 
of the South) was in command of the Cavalry Division 
to which the Rough Riders (dismounted) were attached 
in Cuba. He sailed from Port Tampa with them and 
after the war he wrote of the campaign (and Colonel 
Roosevelt's share therein) as follows : 

"On June 20, 1898, we reached Daiquiri, Cuba. On 
the morning of the 22nd the navy, with steam and naph- 
tha launches to^^ing large strings of boats, commenced 
landing our troops. General Shafter put Lawton's divi- 
sion and Bates' brigade before us. We felt this keenly, 
and knowing that the purpose was to get ashore promptly, 
we commenced landing with our own ship's boats, rowed 
by our men. Roosevelt's energy and push helped very 
much in this effort, and before night we had landed 964 
officers and men of the Cavalry Division. 

"On the 22nd General Lawton was ordered with his 
division, about five thousand strong, to march upon and 
capture the enemy at Siboney, so that the remainder of 
the troops and supplies could be landed at that place, 
which is nine miles nearer Santiago than Daiquiri. 

"Lawton reached Siboney on the 23rd, but found that 
the enemy had already evacuated that place and had 
taken the road toward Santiago. At noon on the 23rd 
General Shafter had not heard from Lawton, and he 
ordered the commander of the Cavalry Division (General 
WHieeler), with the 964 men of his command, to proceed 
to Siboney and put his advance close to the enemy. 

158 



THE ROUGH RIDERS 

''The division commander ordered Young, Wood, 
and Roosevelt forward and hastened on in person, and 
finally found the enemy stationed on the Santiago road 
between two and three miles from Siboney. He recon- 
noitered the Spanish position and after dark returned to 
Siboney. Before daylight these 964 dismounted cavalry- 
men were on the march, and a little after seven they 
attacked, and after a severe fight defeated a large Span- 
ish force under Lieutenant-General Linares. 

''This was Roosevelt's first experience under fire, and 
his superb conduct immediately established him as a 
brave and intrepid soldier. The official report of the 
division commander said: 'The magnificent and brave 
work done by the regiment, under the lead of Colonel 
Wood, testifies to his courage and skill. The energy and 
determination of this officer had been marked from the 
moment he reported to me at Tampa, Florida, and I 
recommended him for the consideration of the Govern- 
ment. I must rely upon his report to do ju,stice to his 
officers and men, but I desire personally to add that all 
that I have said regarding Colonel Wood applies equally 
to Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt.' 

"On July 1, on account of the sickness of General 
Young, his brigade fell under the command of Colonel 
Wood, and the Rough Riders' regiment was commanded 
by Colonel Roosevelt during the San Juan battle and in 
all the engagements which terminated in the surrender 
of the Spanish army. 

"My endorsement upon Colonel Roosevelt's report 
contained these words : ' Colonel Roosevelt and his entire 
command deserve high commendation.' I also recom- 
mended and requested that a gold medal be awarded him 
for his gallantry at San Juan. 

159 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

**The conduct of Colonel Roosevelt was brave and sol- 
dierly. He was always at the front, always active, always 
caring for his men, and always solicitous in attending to 
his duty. 

'*In August we sailed together upon the Miami for 
Montauk Point. He had become Colonel of the regiment, 
and his excellent discipline and administration upon ship- 
board deserved high commendation. 

' ' I saw much of him on the voyage, which lasted some- 
thing over a week. I many times repeated that his party 
would immediately seek him as their candidate for Gov- 
ernor of New York, and that his wonderful civil career, 
supplemented by his short but very brilliant record as a 
soldier, would cause the American people to finally elect 
him to the highest office within their gift. This expres- 
sion of mine was published very generally in the papers 
just after we landed, and I think this view was very gen- 
eral among those who had followed Colonel Roosevelt's 
career from the time he entered public life, 

"The first prediction was verified three days after we 
landed by a formal tender of the nomination for Gover- 
nor. His distinguished career in that high position is 
familiar to the people of the entire country, and espe- 
cially to those of the Empire State." 

A Political Libel Refuted 

One story of Colonel Roosevelt's Spanish War ser^'ice 
was once almost a political issue, during his subsequent 
campaign for Governor of New York. Traducers, or per- 
sons trying to be such, charged him with having shot a 
Spaniard in the back. His devoted friend, the late Jacob 
A. Riis, tells how Riis was making a stump speech for the 
Colonel, wlien a voice from a rear seat whined: "You say 

160 



THE ROUGH RIDERS 

Theodore Roosevelt was a brave man. How about bis 
shooting a Spaniard in the back?" 

Whereupon ire boiled out of Riis' honest beard, and 
he retorted: ''The man who says that is either a liar or 
a fool. Which of the two are you?" And in the ensuing 
turmoil, a burly cabman came to the speaker's rescue 
with : ''Let 'im alone ! Let Professor Riis alone ! Theo- 
dore RoosVelt is the greatest man alive — and I druv him 
once ! ' ' 

But in the Colonel's book about the Rough Riders, the 
shooting of the Spaniard is chronicled as an interesting 
feat and a piece of luck. The Colonel did it just as he 
topped the crest of San Juan Hill, and while the last 
Spanish defenders were running away and turning to fire 
as they ran. Naturally and properly, every American 
soldier in the charge shot at these Spaniards till his mag- 
azine was empty. Colonel Roosevelt, being right up with 
the leaders of the charge, happened to get one of the 
enemy \\ith his revolver. He notes that another officer 
duplicated his performance. 

That same day of his military glory, at the start of 
that same charge, when a regiment of regulars, owing to 
faulty staff work, was lagging at the foot of the slope 
with the Rough Riders behind it, Richard Harding Davis 
saw and heard what he afterward reported as one of 
Theodore Roosevelt's most famous lightning strokes of 
decision. "If you don't wish to advance, let my men 
through, sir!" They were let through and the others 
followed and the charge got going, and the biggest battle 
of the little war was won. 

The Voyage Home 

On August 17, 1898, the Rough Riders embarked for 
home at the Daiquiri iron mines, where they had landed 

161 



'LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

in Cuba seven weeks before. They sailed on tlie trans- 
port Miami and the voyage occupied nine days. Colonel 
Roosevelt had charge of policing the ship and the man- 
agement of the men. The ship was kept in good sanitary 
condition, and in spite of fears in the United States of 
the importation of Cuban yellow fever, the men were at 
once permitted to land, after inspection. Many of the 
men, however, were sick and needed the rest and recuper- 
ation in camp at Montauk Point. The camp became a 
Mecca for New Yorkers and was visited by President 
McKinlej" and his cabinet before the Rough Riders were 
mustered out. 

Named for Governor 

Love for reform had impelled him, even while a sol- 
dier at war, to join in a protest while in Cuba against 
mismanagement on the part of the War Department. He 
took part in the well-founded complaints of the 
''embalmed" beef fed to the army and of insanitary camp 
conditions. As a result hurried reforms were instituted ; 
but the Republican Administration meanwhile was 
** embarrassed." 

Here was a new reason among others that caused 
Republican leaders to dislike Roosevelt. He wasn*t flex- 
ible enough in the hands of bosses. But the people 
acclaimed him the logical candidate for Governor of New 
York. While he was still a soldier he refused to say 
whether he would or would aot accept a nomination ; but 
as soon as he had been mustered out he signified his will- 
ingness to run. 

''Three rousing cheers," replied the State of New 
York and America in general in answer to the carping 
critics when the Colonel came clattering back all bedecked 

162 



THE ROUGH RIDERS 

in khaki — a cloth of new and grave interest in those 
(Jays — his sombrero tucked up at one side cockily. And 
lovingly the people whacked the flanks of the steed of the 
Man on Horseback, sending his charger immediately on 
a gallop that began at Camp Wheeler down at the Mon- 
tauk end of Long Island and never ended until the Gov- 
ernor's chair at Albany had been reached. 

The Regiment Mustered Out 

When the Rough Riders were mustered out on Sep- 
tember 15, 1898, Colonel Roosevelt gave them some 
famous words of advice similar to those he frequently 
gave in later months to the entire country. It was a 
direct, personal, and forcefully typical speech, credited 
with much potency in the lives of some of the men to 
whom it was made. In substance it was as follows : 

''Get action; do things; be sane; don't fritter away 
your time ; create ; act ; take a place wherever you are and 
be somebody; get action — and don't get gay." 

Many are the stories told of Colonel Roosevelt and his 
relation to the members of that famous regiment in after 
life. Senator Shelby M. Cullom of Illinois once discov- 
ered the loyalty of the Colonel to his field comrades when 
he was President. The Senator had called at the White 
House and was told that the President was engaged. 

"Who's there?" he asked of the doorkeeper. 

''Somebody who says he was in the Rough Riders," 
was the reply. 

"Well," observed the legislator, as he turned away, 
what chance have I, then? I'm only a Senator." 



163 



a 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



*The Long, Long Trail" 




— Harrisburg (Pa.) Telegraph, January, 1919. 



164 



CHAPTER IX 
GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK 

Nominated at Saratoga — Chauncey M. Depew's Nominat- 
ing Speech — Roosevelt and Piatt — A Reform Admin- 
istration — Taxation of Corporations — Nominated and 
Elected Vice-President of the United States, 

The politics of New York State in the fall of 1898 
were in a state of upheaval. The administration of Gov- 
ernor Black had proved unpopular, and it was recognized 
that unless a candidate could be found so popular on his 
own account as to pull the Republican ticket through, 
the chances were that the Democrats would carry the 
State. 

The fame of Roosevelt's Rough Riders had given 
their organizer and leader an immense popularity in 
the United States, and for some time before he returned 
to New York he had been put forward prominently as the 
Republican candidate for the governorship. Governor 
Frank S. Black had been elected by an enormous plurality 
two years previously and according to all traditions would 
have been renominated. He was set aside, however, for 
the new hero, and in the convention at Saratoga held 
September 27, 1898, Colonel Roosevelt was nominated 
with great enthusiasm. 

The friends of Governor Black opposed his nomina- 
tion bitterly as long as there seemed a chance for suc- 
cess. The charge was made that Colonel Roosevelt was 
ineligible for the nomination, as he had relinquished his 

165 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

residence in New York when he went to Washington to 
enter the Navy Department. The leading politicians of 
the state were opposed to Colonel Roosevelt for other 
reasons. They had not forgotten the ways of the young 
man who pverturned so many precedents in the State 
Assembly nearly twenty years before, the tenacity with 
which he had held to his principles when in the Civil 
Service Commission, and the quiet firmness with which 
he had refused to obey the demands of party leaders 
while he was president of the Police Board. He was not 
the man the politicians would have sought. But the peo- 
ple had decided to have Colonel Roosevelt for their next 
Governor and the delegates to the convention did not dare 
deny them. 

Depevir's Nominating Speech 

Senator Horace White, of Syracuse, was chairman of 
the convention in which Colonel Roosevelt was nomi- 
nated. Judge J. R. Cady, of Hudson, nominated Gover- 
nor Black, and the Hon. Chauncey M. Depew presented 
the name of Colonel Roosevelt in the following speech : 

Gentlemen : Not since 1863 has the Republican party met in 
convention when the conditions of the country were so interest- 
ing or so critical. Then the Emancipation Proclamation of 
President Lincoln, giving freedom and citizenship to four rail- 
lions of slaves, brought about a revolution in the internal policy 
of our government which seemed to multitudes of patriotic men 
full of the gravest dangers to the Republic. The effect of the 
situation was the sudden and violent sundering of the ties which 
bound the present to the past and the future. New problems 
were precipitated upon our statesmen to solve, which were not to 
be found in the textbooks of the schools, nor in the manuals 
or traditions of Congress. The one courageous, constructive 
party which our politics has known for half a century solved 
these problems so successfully that the regenerated and disen- 
thralled Republic has growTi and prospered under its new birth 
of liberty beyond all precedent and every prediction. 

166 



GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK 

Now, as then, the unexpected has happened. The wildest 
dream ever born of the imagination of the most optimistic 
believer in our destiny could not foresee, when Mr. McKinley 
was elected two years ago, the onrushing torrent of events of the 
past few months. We are either to be submerged by this break 
in the dikes erected by Washington about our government, or 
we are to find by the wise utilization of the conditions forced 
upon us how to be safer and stronger within our boundaries, and 
to add incalculably to American enterprise and opportunity by 
becoming master of the sea, and entering with the surplus of our 
manufactures the markets of the world. We cannot retreat or 
hide. We must * ' ride the waves and direct the storm. ' ' A war 
had been fought and won, and vast possessions near and far 
away have been acquired. In the short space of one hundred 
and thirteen days (duration of the Spanish War) politicians and 
parties have been forced to meet new questions and to take sides 
upon startling issues. The face of the world bar- been changed. 
The maps of yesterday are obsolete. Columbus, looking for the 
Orient and its fabled treasures, sailed four hundred years ago 
into the land-locked harbor of Santiago, and today his spirit 
sees his bones resting under the flag of a new and great country, 
which has found the way and conquered the outposts, and is 
knocking at the door of the farthest East. * * 

The wife of a cabinet officer told me that when Assistant 
Secretary Roosevelt announced that he had determined to resign 
and raise a regiment for the war, some of the ladies in the Admin- 
istration thought it their duty to remonstrate with him. They 
said: "Mr. Roosevelt, you have six children, the youngest a 
few months old, and the eldest not yet in the teens. While the 
country is full of young men that have no such responsibilities 
and are eager to enlist, you have no right to leave the burden 
upon your wife of the care, support and bringing up of that 
family." Roosevelt's answer was a Roosevelt answer: "I have 
done as much as anyone to bring on this war, because I believed 
it must come, and the sooner the better, and now that the war 
has come I have no right to let others do the fighting and stay 
at home myself." 

The regiment of Rough Riders was an original American sug- 
gestion, and to demonstrate that patriotism and indomitable 
courage are common to all conditions of American life. The 
same great qualities are found under the slouch hat of the cow- 
boy and the elegant imported tile of New York's gilded youth. 

167 



LIFE OF THEODOKE ROOSEVELT 

Their mannerisms are the veneers of the "West and East; their 
manhood is the same. 

In that hot and pest-cursed climate of Cuba, officers had 
opportunities for protection from miasma and fever which were 
not possible for the men. But the Rough Riders endured no 
hardships nor dangers •which were not shared by their Colonel. 
He helped them dig the ditches; he stood beside them in the 
deadly dampness of the trenches. No floored tent for him if his 
comrades must sleep on the ground and under the sky. In the 
world-famed charge of the Rough Riders through the hail of shot 
and up the hill of San Juan, their Colonel was a hundred feet 
in advance. The bullets whistling by him are rapidly thinning 
the ranks of those desperate fighters. The Colonel trips and 
falls and the line wavers, but in a moment he is up again, waving 
his sword, climbing and shouting. He bears a charmed life. He 
climbs the barbed-wire fence and plunges through, yelling, 
' ' Come on, bo> s ! Come on, and we will lick hell out of them ! ' ' 
The moral force of that daring cowed and awed the Spaniards, 
and they fled from their fortified heights and Santiago was ours. 

Colonel Roosevelt is the typical citizen-soldier. The sanitary 
condition of our army in Cuba may not have been known for 
weeks through the regular channels of inspection and report to 
the various departments. Here the citizen in the Colonel over- 
came the official routine and reticence of the soldier. His 
graphic letter to the government and the "round robin" he 
initiated brought suddenly and sharply to our attention the 
frightful dangers of disease and death, and resulted in our boys 
being brought immediately home. He may have been subject to 
court-martial for violating the Articles of War, but the humane 
impulses of the people gave him gratitude and applause. 

It is seldom in political conflicts, when new and unexpected 
issues have to be met and decided, that a candidate can be found 
who personifies the popular and progressive side of these issues. 
Representative men move the masses to enthusiasm, and are more 
easily understood than measures. Lincoln, with his immortal 
declaration, made at a time when to make it assured his defeat 
by Douglas for the United States Senate, that "a house divided 
against itself cannot stand ; I believe this government cannot 
endure permanently half-slave and half-free,"' embodied the 
anti-slavery doctrine. Grant, with Appomattox and the parole 
of honor to the Confederate army behind him, stood for the per- 
petuity of union and liberty. McKinley, by his long and able 

168 



GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK 

advocacy of its principles, is the leading spirit for the protection 
of American industries. For this year, for this crisis, for the 
voters of the Empire State, for the young men of the country, 
and the upward, onward, and outward trend of the United 
States, the candidate of candidates is the hero of Santiago, the 
idol of the Rough Riders — Colonel Theodore Roosevelt. 

A Hard Fight to Win 

The roll-call of the convention showed 753 votes for 
Roosevelt and 218 for Black. Judge Cady, who had placed 
Governor Black in nomination, immediately moved to 
make the nomination of Colonel Roosevelt unanimous, 
and Senator Hobart Krum of Schoharie, who had been 
one of Governor Black's chief advisers, promised har- 
mony in the party by saying: *'0n behalf of Governor 
Black and on behalf of every delegate who voted for him 
in this convention, I say they will stand by the nomina- 
tion of Colonel Roosevelt as he took the heights at San 
Juan. ' ' 

But after his nomination, Colonel Roosevelt had a 
hard fight to win — a fight that included innumerable oppo- 
nents \^ithin his own party, politicians and business men 
who disliked his ever-present reform ideas. The cam- 
paign was an exciting and at times boisterous one, in 
which his ''Rough Rider" character was made to play 
a prominent part. His Republican predecessor, Gover- 
nor Frank S. Black, had been catapulted into Albany by 
a plurality of 213,022. Colonel Roosevelt was elected 
Governor by a bare plurality of 17,786 votes over Augus- 
tus Van Wyck, the Democratic candidate. 

Roosevelt and Piatt 

Governor Roosevelt had accepted the Republican 
nomination unconditionally, but he had taken pains to 
announce several times during the campaign that on all 
important questions of policy and legislation he should 

169 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

consult with the Republican state leader, Senator Piatt. 
He made it clear, however, that he would not bind himself 
to act on the advice received if it were not in accordance 
mth his own ideas of what was right. 

Once installed in office, he carried out this policy to 
the letter. The reproaches of the reformers with which 
he was met when he breakfasted with Piatt were turned 
to praise later when he refused to make the machine can- 
didate, Francis Hendricks, Superintendent of Public 
Works, and removed Piatt's man, Lou Payn, from the 
post of Superintendent of Insurance. He formed the 
habit of asking ad\dce of Elihu Root, with whom his rela- 
tions were ever after close, and it was more often Mr. 
Root's advice that was accepted than Piatt's. 

Many Sw^eeping Reforms 

He had hardly begun to get the gubernatorial chair 
fairly warmed when he had the state bosses buzzing 
angrily about his ears — as had been expected. Always 
punching right and left, he waded in to establish reforms 
in the administration of the state. 

Governor Roosevelt's two years at Albany, in fact, 
saw more constructive and reconstructive legislation 
placed on the statute books than the entire decade that 
preceded him. The Ci\^l Service law was amended and 
enforced strictly — ''putting the starch into it," the Gov- 
ernor called it. 

The Governor personally investigated the tenement- 
house problem of New York City, \\Tth which he had 
pre\dously made himself familiar during his term as 
Police Commissioner, and then secured the passage of a 
radical act that went far toward its solution. 

Among the laws enacted affecting the laboring classes 
were an eight-hour law, a law providing for the licensing 

170 



GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK 

of employment agencies, and stringent factory laws, 
which, by the establishment of a licensing system, prac- 
tically wiped out the worst abuses of the ** sweatshops." 

Taxed the Corporations 

No piece of legislation was more earnestly pressed by 
Governor Roosevelt than the Corporation Franchise Tax 
law. It was his first step in the development of a policy 
which he afterward advocated in a wider field — namely, 
the requirement that corporate wealth be made to pay 
its just proportion of running the government. It was 
not a new idea with him. For years he had insisted that 
the state's willingness to give away valuable assets with- 
out adequate return was one of the weak points in the 
American practice of government. 

It was in the franchise fight, so Colonel Roosevelt's 
friends assert, that he first uncovered the closeness of the 
relationship between boss legislation and big business ; an 
abuse that he hammered at steadily in later years in a 
larger way, once destiny had led him into the fields of 
national affairs. Also he made it plain that he would like 
to have a second terra as Governor to carry out still 
weightier schemes of reform. 

Last Message as Governor 

Governor Roosevelt's last message to the State Legis- 
lature in January, 1900, was of particular interest 
because it foreshadowed to a remarkable degree his later 
presidential programme. The germ or beginning of sev- 
eral policies which experience and study developed, is 
here clearly seen. In addition to advocacy of forest 
''preservation" and employers' liability, he took up the 
question of the state and public utilities. Of the accumu- 
lation of large fortunes, he said : ' * The point to be aimed 

171 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

at is the protection of the individual against wrong, not 
the attempt to limit and hamper the acquisition and out- 
put of wealth." Of the trust problem he wrote: *'AVhen 
a trust becomes a monopoly the state has an immediate 
right to interfere. * * * Publicity is the one sure 
and adequate remedy which we can now invoke. There 
may be other remedies, but what these are we can only 
find out by publicity." 

The Gospel of Work 

On Appomattox Day, April 10, 1899, (jovernor Roose- 
velt was the guest of the Hamilton Club at a banquet in 
Chicago. There and then he enunciated the gospel of 
work — the doctrine of the strenuous life — with which his 
name was ever after associated. The first part of his 
address was as follows : 

In speaking to you, men of the greatest city of the West, men 
of the state which gave to the country Lincoln and Grant, men 
who pre-eminently and distinctly embody all that is most Amer- 
ican in the American character, I wish to preach, not the doc- 
trine of ignoble ease, but tlie doctrine of the strenuous life ; the 
life of toil and effort ; of labor and strife ; to preach that highest 
form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere 
easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, 
from hardship^, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins 
the splendid ultimate triumph. 

A life of ignoble ease, a life of that peace which springs 
merely from lack either of desire or of power to strive after great 
things, is as little worthy of a nation as of an individual. I ask 
only that what every self-respecting American demands from 
himself, and from his sons, shall be demanded of the American 
nation as a whole. Who among you would teach your boys that 
ease, that peace, is to be the first consideration in their eyes — to 
be the ultimate goal after which they strive? You men of Chi- 
cago have made this city great; you men of Illinois have done 
your share, and more than your share, in making America great, 
because you neither preach nor practice such a doctrine. You 
work yourselves, and you bring up your sons to work. If you 

172 



GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK 

are rich and are worth your salt, you will teach your sons that 
though they may have leisure, it is not to be spent in idleness; 
for wisely used leisure merely means that those who possess it, 
being free from the necessity of working for their livelihood, are 
all the more bound to carry on some kind of non-remunerative 
work in science, in letters, in art, in exploration, in historical 
research — ^work of the type we most need in this country, the 
successful carrying out of which reflects most honor upon the 
nation. 

We do not admire the man of timid peace. We admire the 
man who embodies victorious effort ; the man who never wrongs 
his neighbor ; who is prompt to help a friend ; but who has those 
virile qualities necessary to win in the stern strife of actual life. 
It is hard to fail ; but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. 
In this life we get nothing save by effort. Freedom from effort 
in the present merely means that there has been stored up effort 
in the past. A man can be freed from the necessity of work only 
by the fact that he or his fathers before him have worked to good 
purpose. If the freedom thus purchased is used aright, and the 
man still does actual work, though of a different kind, whether 
as a writer or a general, whether in the field of politics or in the 
field of exploration and adventure, he shows he deserves his good 
fortune. But if he treats this period of freedom from the need 
of actual labor as a period not of preparation, but of mere enjoy- 
ment, even though perhaps not of vicious enjoyment, he shows 
that he is simply a cumberer of the earth's surface; and he 
surely unfits himself to hold his own with his fellows, if the need 
to do so should again arise. A mere life of ease is not in the end 
a very satisfactory life, and, above all, it is a life which ulti- 
mately unfits those who follow it for serious work in the world. 

As it is with the individual, so it is with the nation. It is a 
base untruth to say that happy is the nation that has no history. 
Thrice happy is the nation that has a glorious history. Far 
better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even 
though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor 
spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they 
live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. 
If in 1861 the men who loved the Union had believed that peace 
was the end of all things, and war and strife the worst of all 
things, and had acted up to their belief, we would have saved 
hundreds of millions of dollars. Moreover, besides saving all 
the blood and treasure we then lavished, we would have prevented 

173 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the heart-break of many women, the dissolution of many homes ; 
and we would have spared the country' those months of gloom 
and shame, when it seemed as if our armies marched only to 
defeat. We could have avoided all this suffering simply by 
shrinking from strife. And if we had thus avoided it, we would 
have shown that we were w^eaklings, and that we were unfit to 
stand among the great nations of the earth. 

Thank God for the iron in the blood of our fathers, the men 
who upheld the wisdom of Lincoln and bore sword or rifle in 
the armies of Grant ! Let us, the children of the men who prf^ ,'ed 
themselves equal to the mighty days — let us, the children of the 
men who carried the great Civil War to a triumphant conclusion, 
praise the God of our fathers that the ignoble counsels of peace 
were rejected ; that the suffering and loss, the blackness or sorrow 
and despair, were unflinchingly faced, and the years of strife 
endured ; for in the end the slave w'as freed, the Union restored, 
and the mighty American Republic placed once more as a hel- 
meted queen among nations. 

Elected Vice President 

As the time approached for the Kepubliean National 
Convention of 1900, with the assurance of the renomina- 
tion of William McKinley for President, speculation grew 
rife as to the candidate for second place on the ticket. 
Once more the people were heard from, and their voice 
was for Theodore Roosevelt for Vice-President. As the 
popular demand for his nomination grew in volume, it was 
encouraged and echoed by the machine politicians of 
New York State, headed by Senator Tom Piatt, the ''easy 
boss," from whose domination the Governor had grad- 
ually but surely freed himself. 

There were, and always mil be, those who are inclined 
to say that the seed of the demand for Theodore Roose- 
velt's nomination to the Vice-Presidency was first delib- 
erately planted by the Republican bosses who wished to 
"promote" Theodore Roosevelt to an office where he 
could do them no further harm. For two years he had 

174 



GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK 

been a thorn in the side of Senator Piatt, and the New 
York bosses were quoted as saying in effect: '* Let's 
bury him. Let's make him Vice-President of the United 
States. There's a Httle job, so the history of the coun- 
try shows, that takes the intervention of the hand of God 
to lift a man out of eternal oblivion, now and forever." 

But whoever made the first suggestion of Governor 
Roosevelt for the Vice-Presidency, it was caught up with 
genuine enthusiasm by the people, in the East as well as 
in the West. Whoever planted the seed soon saw it 
sprout and become a plant of sturdy growth. The Gov- 
ernor, anxious to go on with his work at Albany and 
looking forward to a renomination, tried in vain to stop 
the swelling movement. He endeavored to make it clear 
that he would decline the proffered honor. As early as 
February, 1900, months before the National Convention 
was to assemble, he stated his attitude in einphatic terms. 
^' Under no circumstances," he said, ''could I or would I 
accept the nomination for the Vice-Presidency." 

Even this declaration, however, failed to stop the wave 
of popular sentiment for him. No doubt it was then 
encouraged and stimulated by the political elements desir- 
ous of shelving him. 

Nominated by Acclamation 

When the Republican convention met in June, 1900, 
in Philadelphia, his presence as a delegate-at-large from 
New York was hailed with enthusiasm. It was his first 
appearance in a National Convention since the Blaine 
convention of 1884, sixteen years before, and the famous 
Rough Rider, successful Governor of New York, was the 
lion of the day. He made a nomination speech for Mr. 
McKinley for President, but when he himself was nomi- 

175 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

nated for Vice-President with a roar of acclamation, he 
was absent from the scene. 

In a room nearby, he was calmly reading a book by 
one of his favorite Greek authors. 

A Memorable Campaign 

Accepting the nomination which had been thus thrust 
upon him, the Colonel threw himself with all his bound- 
less energy into the campaign which resulted in the 
re-election of McKinley and his own election as Vice- 
President. Little did the bosses who had smiled in their 
sleeves at his nomination dream that an assassin's act 
was soon to remove President McKinley and place the 
Rough Rider in the cliief magistracy of the nation — to 
make him in politics the indisputable chieftain and leader 
of his party. 

The campaign carried Governor Roosevelt all over 
the land. For eight weeks he toured the country, visiting 
twenty-four states, traveling more than 21,000 miles, and 
delivering more than 700 speeches to audiences aggre- 
gating 3,000,000 people. 

How He Spent the Day 

A record of the way Mr. Roosevelt employed his time 
was made by a man who accompanied him on his tour of 
the country as a candidate for the Vice-Presidency in 
1900. It is the schedule of a day's occupations, and for 
variety of interest it would be difficult to find it equaled 
in the lives of any other two men. Here it is : 

7 :00 A. M.— Breakfast. 
7:30 A. M.— A speech. 
8:00 A, M. — Reading: an historical work. 
9 :00 A. M.— A speech. 
10:00 A. M.— Dictating letters. 

176 



GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK 

11 :00 A. M. — Discussing Montana mines. 
11 :30 A. M.— A speech. 
12 :00 M. — Reading an ornithological work. 
12 :30 P. M.— A speech. 

1:00 P. M.— Lunch. 

1 :30 P. M.— A speech. 

2 :30 P. M.— Reading Sir Walter Scott. 

3:00 P. M. — Answering telegrams. 

3 :45 P. M.— A speech. 

4 :00 P. M. — Meeting the press. 

4:30 P. M.— Reading. 

5 :00 P. M.— A speech. 

6:00 P. M.— Reading. 

7:00 P. M.— Supper. 

8 :00 to 10 :00 P. M.— Speaking. . 
11 :00 P. M. — Reading alone in his car. 
12 :00 P. M.— To bed. 

How He Met Opposition 

Colonel Roosevelt was always happy where things 
were happening. He said once that he liked to be where 
something was going on, and he generally managed to 
make something happen where he was. Danger aroused 
in him a keen sense of enjojinent, as was illustrated 
in a small way in Victor, Colorado, during the campaign 
of 1900. The opposition in Colorado to the Republican 
position on the coinage issue was bitter, and a mob tried 
to prevent him from speaking in Victor. One man hit 
him in the breast with a piece of scantling six feet long 
from which an insulting banner had been torn. Another 
man tried to strike him in the face, but w^as prevented by 
a miner. The same observer who recorded the routine of 
a day's work on the tour said afterward: 

''When the storm of the mob swept up to him I stood 
on the lower step of the Pullman sleeper with George W. 
Ogden. Ogden exclaimed: 

'"See the Colonel's face!' 

177 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

**I looked. Rocks were flying over him and the scant- 
ling waved savagely. And he? He was smiling and his 
eyes were dancing; and he was coming ahead to safety as 
composedly as though he were approaching the entrance 
to his own home among friends." 

When it was all over he exclaimed enthusiastically : 

''This is magnificent. Why, it's the best time I've 
had since I started. I wouldn't have missed it for any- 
thing." 

He seemed to enjoy everything in the same enthus- 
iastic way, and he had ''a bully time" throughout the 
campaign, which resulted in the triumphant election of 
McElnley and Roosevelt. 



178 



CHAPTER X 
HE SUCCEEDS McKINLEY 

Inaugurated as Vice-President — Relations with McKin- 
ley Pleasant — Assassination of the President — Roose- 
velt in the AdirondacJcs — He Becomes President — 
Followed McKinley's Policies — An International 
Peacemaker. 

When President McKinley and Vice-President Roose- 
velt were inaugurated at Washington on March 4, 1901, 
an interested spectator was Senator Thomas C. Piatt of 
New York. When he started for the inauguration he 
said, "I am going down to see Roosevelt put on the veil," 
thereby expressing the attitude and hopes of the machine 
politicians of the new Vice-President's home state. 

But Roosevelt's term as Vice-President was destined 
to be of short duration. He presided over the Senate at 
the week's extra session which followed the inauguration, 
and followed unconventional methods which promised to 
prove interesting for the grave and reverend seigniors 
of the Senate at subsequent sessions. 

His relations with President McKinley and his cabinet 
were close and cordial. Unlike many former Vice-Presi- 
dents, he was in full agreement with the administration 
policy, and he was beginning to enjoy life in Washington, 
with definite plans for the useful occupation of his time, 
when the vacation season of 1901 opened and the mem- 
bers of the administration scattered in various directions 
for the summer. 

179 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

September found the Vice-President with his family 
camping in the Adirondacks, and it was there that he 
received the news of the shooting of President McKinloy, 
' who was the victim of an assassin's (Czolgosz's) bullet 
at Buffalo on September 6, ''President's Day" at the 
Pan-American Exposition. Mr. Roosevelt hurried at 
once to Buffalo, but at the end of three days, being 
assured by the attending physicians that the President 
would probably recover, he returned to the mountains. 
When the fatal complications set in, he was again sent 
for, but President McKinley died on September 13, seven 
days after he was shot, before Mr. Roosevelt again 
reached his bedside. 

Notified by a Reporter 

How Colonel Roosevelt received the news of the pass- 
ing of the President has been told as follows : 

''One day a reporter, throwing himself off a fagged 
horse in front of a camp in the fastnesses of the Adiron- 
dack woods, blurted the news to Roosevelt that McKin- 
ley was dead. 

"The Colonel started violently. He didn't speak for 
minutes, gazing the while silently toward a distant moun- 
tain peak. Then he went into his camp, hastily threw his 
belongings together, and drove off at a hair-raising speed 
through the autumnal woods toward a railway station 
many miles away. 

"Arrived at Buffalo he strode nervously, with fixed 
gaze, into a darkened room in the Milburn residence, a 
room adjoining the one in which the body of the martyred 
McKinloy lay. Distinguished old men, their white heads 
bowed, sat about the darkened room as the youthful-look- 
ing Roosevelt entered with quick, alert step. 

180 



HE SUCCEEDS McKINLEY 

* * * The President ! ' someone whispered suddenly ; and 
the elder statesmen sprang to their feet. ' ' 

Thus Theodore Roosevelt became Chief Magistrate of 
the United States and succeeded to the chair of Wash- 
ington, Lincoln, and McKinley. 

One crack of a madman's revolver had ended the 
machine-made plans. And as the dying McKinley was 
carried from the scenes of hysteria in Buffalo on that 
September day, Wall Street stocks on the instant went 
tumbling ; big business for the moment halted its might- 
iest plans; a whole nation, despite its shock and grief, 
took a frightened look into the future. 

"Stocks went lower and lower. Teddy Eoosevelt! 
The hot-headed Unterrified! The broncho-busting boy 
reformer — this heated, uncontrollable flake of dynamite. 
President of the United States for almost a full term!" 

But Theodore Roosevelt soon mastered the situation. 
Continues McKinley Policy 

He took the oath of office as President at Buffalo on 
the afternoon of September 14, in the presence of the 
Cabinet. Then, addressing the late President's advisers, 
he said: *'In this hour of deep and terrible national 
bereavement, I wish it to be known that it shall be my 
intention and endeavor to continue absolutely unbroken 
the policy of President McKinley for the peace and 
prosperity and honor of our beloved country." He then 
asked the members of the Cabinet to continue in office, 
insisting that he could not consider the withdrawal of any 
one of them. 

The people, even big business, took cheer and confi- 
dence. Stocks slowly began to recover. And by the time 
President Roosevelt had sent his first message to Con- 
gress in the following December, it was a reassured peo- 

181 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

pie, still doubting, a bit, perhaps, but wholly recovered 
from the first fears. 

Policy Toward the South 

Early in his administration he let it be known that he 
would appoint good Democrats to office rather than bad 
Republicans in the South. He said he did not beUeve in 
the South 's non-participation in the work of the Federal 
Government whenever a Republican administration hap- 
pened to be installed at Washington. As for the Negro, 
he declared that he must take his chances with the rest, 
and that no favor would be shown a bad Negro, just 
because he was a Negro, or because he was a Republican. 
He began by making appointments wiiich electrified the 
South, and brought words of praise from those who had 
never before been known to praise anything Republican. 

It was at this point ^at the Booker T. Washington 
incident took place. The President invited the Negro 
educator to discuss a special subject with him, and then 
asked him to stay to lunch. It was clearly not intended 
as an affront to the South, and apparently the President 
had not considered its possible consequences one way or 
the other. His position was to ignore the criticism 
entirely. He went on appointing ''good Democrats" to 
office, and found no difficulty in getting men to serve; 
later he made an extended tour of the Southern States, 
and was everywhere received with cordiality. 

His First Message 

President Roosevelt's first message to Congress in 
December, 1901, was awaited with unusual interest as the 
first extended statement of his policy. Written while the 
horror of President McKinley's assassination was still 
fresh in the public mind, it naturally devoted considerable 

182 



HE SUCCEEDS McKINLEY 

attention to the suppression of anarchy and the exclusion 
of anarchists from entering the country. 

Turning to the Monroe Doctrine, Roosevelt laid 
particular emphasis on its application to commercial as 
distinguished from political relations. *'It is really," he 
wrote, ''a guarantee of the commercial independence of 
the Americas. We do not ask under this doctrine for any 
exclusive dealings with any other American State. We 
do not guarantee any state against punishment if it mis- 
conducts itself, provided that punishment does not take 
the form of the acquisition of territory by any non-Amer- 
ican power. ' ' 

Congratulating the country on the ''timely and judi- 
cious" Gold Standard Act, the President turned his atten- 
tion to the trust problem, and proclaimed the first step 
in the policy which, with its later developments, is so 
closely associated with his nam^ ''In the interest of the 
public," he declared, "the government should have the 
right to inspect and examine the workings of the great 
corporations engaged in interstate business. Publicity 
is the only sure remedy which we can now evoke." 

In that first message President Roosevelt insisted 
upon the passage of a Cuban reciprocity measure. The 
House backed him, but the Senate did not; whereupon 
the President appealed to the people with the plea that 
the United States was under obligation to keep its pledge 
to make Cuba a free nation. On May 20, 1902, President 
Roosevelt turned over to a Cuban President and Cuban 
Congress a truly republican government for Cuba and the 
Stars and Stripes were hauled down on the island. 
The Great Coal Strike 

In the autumn of 1902 a great strike in the anthracite 
coal regions of Pennsylvania threatened to cripple the 

183 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

country. "With characteristic fighting spirit — called 
"meddling" by his opponents — the President started to 
untie the tangle into which coal operators and labor had 
got themselves. But in the matter of the coal strike, 
President Roosevelt thought long and carefully before he 
acted. Then with the exclamation, ''I suppose this '11 end 
me, but I'll do it," he appointed an arbitrating commis- 
sion — and the miners w^ent back to work. The report of 
the commission, which was not completed until 'v\'inter, 
settled, not only this particular strike, but fixed a point 
of departure for the settlement of labor disputes in the 
future. 

The Venezuelan Affair 

It w^as during the end of the same year, 1902, that 
Mr. Roosevelt w^as called upon to act in the role of inter- 
national peacemaker, when our affairs dangerously 
shifted to a part of the world, Venezuela, which had 
almost led us into a European war during the Cleveland 
administration. A fleet of German and British warships 
came to anchor off La Guayra in December — first having 
obtained United States permission to do so — and told 
President Castro that if certain debts due Germans and 
Englishmen were not paid, the fleet would seize certain 
Venezuelan ports and custom-houses and hold them until 
the amounts in dispute had been obtained. 

Castro's answer was immediate preparation for armed 
defense. The Europeans opened fire, ports were bom- 
barded, and Venezuelans were killed. 

Then ensued one of the momentous episodes of Amer- 
ica's foreign relations in modern times, one of the bravest 
and most dramatic moves ever made by an American 
President on his own responsibility, and certainly Presi- 
dent Roosevelt's most forcible act in assertion of the 

184 



HE SUCCEEDS McKINLEY 

Monroe Doctrine. In his first message to Congress the 
President had stated clearly his idea of what the Monroe 
Doctrine meant to the South American States, that the 
United States would defend these nations against terri- 
torial encroachments of European powers, but would not 
prevent measures merely intended to enforce the pay- 
ment of just debts. 

Used Navy as "the Big Stick'' 

Quietly, consulting nobody, he used the navy, with 
complete success, as his Big Stick, over the swollen heads 
of the Kaiser and the Pan-Germans, eager to make their 
claims a pretext for a characteristic rape of Venezuelan 
territory. The episode never was known to the public 
until a few years ago, when an account of it authorized 
by Colonel Roosevelt, appeared in "The Life of John 
Hay," by Prof. William Roscoe Thayer. Here is that 
account : 

' ' President Roosevelt did not shirk the test. Although 
his action has never been described, there is no reason 
now for not describing it. 

"One day, when the crisis was at its height, he sum- 
moned to the White House Dr. Holleben, the German 
Ambassador, and told him that unless Germany consented 
to arbitrate, the American squadron under Admiral 
Dewey would be given orders, by noon ten days later, to 
proceed to the Venezuelan coast and prevent any taking 
possession of Venezuelan territory. 

"Dr. Holleben began to protest that his imperial mas- 
ter, having once refused to arbitrate, could not change 
his mind. The President said that he was not arguing 
the question, because arguments had already been gone 
over until no useful purpose would be served by repeating 
them; he was simply giving information which the 

185 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Ambassador might think it important to transmit to 
Berlin. 

*'A week passed in silence. Then Dr. Holleben again 
called on the President, but said nothing of the Vene- 
zuelan matter. When he rose to go, the President asked 
him about it, and when he stated that he had received 
nothing from his government, the President informed 
him in substance that, in view of this fact. Admiral Dewey 
would be instructed to sail a day earlier than the day he, 
the President, had originally mentioned. 
Kaiser Finally Yields 

''Much perturbed, the Ambassador protested. The 
President informed him that not a stroke of a pen had 
been put on paper; that if the Emperor would agree to 
arbitrate, he, the President, would heartily praise him for 
such action and would treat it as taken on German ini- 
tiative; but that within forty-eight hours there must be 
an offer to arbitrate, or Dewey would sail with the orders 
indicated. Within thirty-six hours Dr. Holleben returned 
to the White House and announced to President Roose- 
velt that a dispatch had just come from Berlin saying 
that the Kaiser would arbitrate. 

''Neither Admiral Dewey (who with an American 
fleet was then manoeuvering in the West Indies) nor any- 
one else knew of the step that was to be taken ; the naval 
authorities were merely required to be in readiness, but 
were not told what for. 

"On the announcement that Germany had consented 
to arbitrate, the President publicly complimented the 
Kaiser on being so stanch an advocate of arbitration. 
The humor of this was probably more relished in the 
White House than in Berlin. The Kaiser suggested that 
the President should act as arbitrator, and Mr. Roosevelt 

186 



HE SUCCEEDS McKINLEY 

was ready to serve, but Mr. Hay (then Secretary of 
State) dissuaded him. Venezuela's claims went to The 
Hague for arbitration. 

' ' England and Italy, Germany 's partners in the naval 
expedition, gladly complied, England, we presume, had 
never intended that her half-alliance with Germany 
should bring her into open rupture with the United 
States. Although her pact was kept as secretly as pos- 
sible at home inklings of it leaked out. AVhether Lord 
Salisbury or Mr. Balfour originated it, the friends of 
neither have cared to extol it, or indeed to let its details 
be generally known." 

It was seven years and five months later that Colonel 
Eoosevelt, duly visiting Berlin in the course of his tri- 
umphal tour of Europe at the end of the African hunt, 
and reviewing German troops at manoeuvers in the 
Kaiser's company, was fulsomely addressed by the mon- 
arch he had thwarted: "My friend Roosevelt, I am glad 
to welcome you, the most distinguished American. You 
are the first civilian who has ever reviewed German sol- 
diers!" 

In 1903 the old Alaska boundary dispute between 
Great Britain and the United States began to erupt again. 
At Mr. Roosevelt's suggestion, the matter was settled 
once and for all by a joint commission that met in Lon- 
don — the commission deciding in favor of the American 
contentions. 

The President's action in securing a reference of the 
Venezuelan difficulties to The Hague tribunal, it has been 
well said, saved the life of that court. In the fall of 1904 
he took the first step toward the convening of a second 
peace conference of the nations. 

187 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Antagonizes Senator Tillman 

In 1902 President Roosevelt made an enemy of Sena- 
tor Tillman in a characteristic way. Prince Henry of 
Prussia was the nation's guest, and when he was in Wash- 
ington an official dinner was given in his honor at the 
White House. As the Prince was an Admiral, the mem- 
bers of the Naval Affairs Committee were invited. 

Just then Senator McLaurin called Tillman a liar in 
the Senate, and Tillman responded with a full-arm swing 
on McLaurin 's jaw. President Roosevelt expressed his 
opinion of the proceedings by publicly rescinding his 
invitation to Tillman. Tillman never forgave him, and 
when five years later a woman named Mrs. Minor Harris 
was forcibly removed from the White House, when she 
was trj^ing to get an interview with the President, Till- 
man took up the case in the Senate and made an issue of 
it. Mr. Roosevelt retaliated later by making charges 
against Tillman's personal probity, but they were not 
sustained. 

A Doctrine That Failed 

Mr. Roosevelt met one of the first real defeats of 
his life when the Federal Courts refused to accede to a 
new and extraordinary doctrine he attempted to set up — 
that an editor anywhere in the country might be crimi- 
nally proceeded against in the District of Columbia for a 
libel against the United States Government, pro\'ided 
that it could be shown that copies of his newspaper were 
circulated in that District. It was really one of the most 
audacious attempts that Mr. Roosevelt ever made, but he 
believed he was right in his contention. 

He never did agree very well with the courts and in 
private conversation he often complained humorously 
that whenever he appointed a judge to the bench that 

188 



HE SUCCEEDS McKINLEY 

judge immediately began rendering decisions adverse to 
his policies. One such case was said to be that of Justice 
Oliver Wendell Holmes, of the United States Supreme 
Court. 

"Perdicaris Alive or Raisuli Dead" 

As Mr. Roosevelt's ''first term" drew to a close the 
eyes of the administration were suddenly turned upon 
Morocco. An American, Ion Perdicaris, and his Enghsh 
son-in-law were kidnapped from their home near Tan- 
gier by the notorious Moorish bandit, Raisuh, on May 18, 
1904. Raisuli demanded a ransom and other favors from 
the Sultan of Morocco before he would release his pris- 
oners. Nine days later, on orders from President Roose- 
velt, the United States cruiser Brooklyn with Rear 
Admiral Chadwick's flag flying was headed toward Tan- 
gier, Rear Admiral Jewell following with three more 
warships. British warships joined the fleet in African 
waters. 

''Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead!" Mr. Roosevelt 
fu^as quoted as sajdng, and whether he said it or not, the 
'slogan blazed around the world. And a month later the 
American and the Englishman had been released, 
although Raisuli in the meantime had obtained from the 
Sultan almost all that the bandit had demanded. 

Long before the meeting of the Republican National 
Convention, at Chicago, on June 24, 1904, it was certain 
that if he lived. President Roosevelt would be renomi- 
nated to succeed himself. He had never made any secret 
of his desire for an active election to the office to which 
he had succeeded on President McKinley's death. 

Roosevelt in 1904 
The personality of Theodore Roosevelt had made a 
wonderful impression upon the country by the end of 

189 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

his partial term in the White House. Frank A. Munsey 
described it in Munsey 's Magazine for November, 1904, 
writing from intimate knowledge, as follows : 

Train a pine sapling till you grow old and gray, and you will 
never make of it a hickory tree. It will not have the fiber, the 
character, the strength. It will be a pine stick all its days, and 
nothing more. And so with human life. Training and associa- 
tion can polish the brain and groom the body, and stimulate 
ambition and energy to their limits, but it cannot create new 
limits or fashion a new brain or a new body. 

Character has a deeper foundation than that of training and 
association. It comes somewhere out of the dim and unknown 
past. The man who stands head and shoulders above his fellow 
men is bigger because he was born bigger. The size of a man 
is God's work. It was never anything else, and never will be 
anything else so long as the world stands. No man has ever done 
great things who wasn 't created great in the fineness of his brain, 
the intensity of his nature, the clearness of his perception and 
the force of his application. 

But why should genius favor one man more than another ? It 
may be because his ancestors, perhaps a thousand years before 
his advent, suffered more, endured more, fought a better fight 
than others of their time. It may be this or that or something 
else. It's all a great, impenetrable mystery. If not, account for 
Lincoln, if you can — Lincoln and Jackson and Webster and 
Grant and Napoleon. 

From a countless army of ancestors, known and unknown; 
from the sailor, the soldier, the herdsman, the farmer, the me- 
chanic, the lawyer, the doctor, the man of letters, the aristo- 
crat ; from women folk of all these classes and degrees ; through 
toil and industry, poverty and affluence ; through joy and sorrow, 
tenderness and affection, devotion to family, country and religion 
— from all these and through all these sprang the Roosevelt of 
today. 

Roosevelt hasn't all the virtues. He has his faults. He is 
intensely human. He isn't immune from error of judgment. 
He makes mistakes. If he didn't he wouldn't be human and 
wouldn't be good for anything. He makes mistakes, but he like- 
wise makes successes. In determining a man's mental stature, 
the question is not 'Does he make mistakes?' but, rather, 'Does 
he make more successes than mistakes?' 

190 



HE SUCCEEDS McKINLEY 

The Catling gun doesn 't strike home its individual shots with 
the accuracy of the carefully, deliberately aimed rifle, but in 
battle, nevertheless, it does the deadly work. It brings results. 

Of all Roosevelt's characteristics that one which is most 
marked and which has contributed most to his achievements is 
his intensity. 

Without this quality no man, however brilliantly endowed in 
other respects, ever accomplishes much. With Roosevelt intensity 
is his power, his strenuosity, his life. It is a passion with him 
— the very soul of his genius. 

Roosevelt, however, is not merely a man of intensity and 
action, but is a scholar as well. His books show thought and 
sound analysis. His style in writing, as in speaking, is forceful 
and convincing. His oratory, like himself, is rugged and intense. 

He is a close student of men and affairs and of political his- 
tory both at home and abroad. He is keen to discover merit in 
others, and is equally keen to retain and encourage it whether it 
be of his own political faith or that opposed to him, and for dis- 
honesty and incompetence he has no place in the great business 
over which he presides. 

Roosevelt's bravery is double barreled. It is both moral and 
physical. This is assuredly a rare combination — rare indeed 
when so highly developed. 

We have many men whose courage in physical combat, in the 
hell of battle, is so fine, so grand, so supreme, that we can only 
feel our admiration with a thrill that sweeps us from head to 
foot. But apply to these same fearless men the test of moral 
bravery and our hearts will sink for pity of them. On the other 
hand, some men with the frailest of bodies and the most timid 
natures are giants — great, grand, heroic figures in the fiercer 
warfare of moral courage. 

The combination, I repeat, is most rare, but in Roosevelt we 
have both. He can lead an army in the teeth of battle and never 
flinch, and with equal courage he can say, and say with terrible 
emphasis, 'Yes,' or 'No!' He daresto do right as he under- 
stands the right, and he dares to defy wrong as he sees the 
wrong. 



193 



CHAPTER XI 
ELECTION AS PRESIDENT 

Roosevelt as a Politician and Leader — His Success Pre- 
dicted — Nominated for a Full Term and Triumph- 
antly Elected — Many Reforms Urged — Briyigs Peace 
Between Russia and Japan — The Panic of 1907 — For- 
eign Relations. 

Theodore Roosevelt was only forty-two years of age 
when he was first called to the Presidency, on the death 
of William McKinley. He was the youngest man who had 
ever occupied that high office, and yet long before the 
time came for his election to succeed himself he was 
recognized, not as the rash young man political enemies 
had seen in him, but as a statesman, "steadied by experi- 
ence, quick of thought but slow to act, who was always 
open to ad^dce and never above taking it." From the 
outset he proved his right to leadership and the politi- 
cians found to their great surprise that they had a far- 
sighted, keen, and astute politician to deal with in the 
White House. No better or wiser politician, in the best 
sense of the term, ever occupied the Executive chair. 

Years before he succeeded McKinley those who knew 
him had prophesied that he would become President of 
the United States. President Harrison wrote in 1898: 
''Mr. Roosevelt is today one of the best examples of 
Presidential timber in the country. His varied life as a 
ranchman, hunter, soldier, and politician has placed him 

192 



ELECTION AS PRESIDENT 

in such close proximity with so many different men that 
they have had ample opportunity to judge of his qualities 
and to understand him when he says or does a thing." 

President Cleveland's Prediction 

Before that, President Cleveland had recognized the 
coming man. In refusing to displace him as Civil Service 
Commissioner, he had said : * ' You do not know Theodore 
Roosevelt. I do, and I tell you that he is one of the 
ablest politicians either party ever had, and the ablest 
Republican politician in this generation. The country 
will find this out in time. If I keep him where he is, he 
can't do us any harm ; if I remove him and make a martyr 
of him, he has political ability enough to do us serious 
damage. I shan't remove him." 

Thomas B. Reed, Speaker of the House of Representa- 
tives, was also among the prophets. Speaking of the 
Civil Service Commission, when Roosevelt was a mem- 
ber of it, Mr. Reed said of him: '^ We've got an Amer- 
ican of blood and iron — a coming man — on that Commis- 
sion. I tell you, you want to watch that man, for he is a 
new-world Bismarck and Cromwell combined, and you 
will see him President yet. 

President Andrew D. White, of Cornell University, at 
an early stage of Roosevelt's career, is quoted as saying 
to his students: *' Young gentlemen, some of you may 
enter public life. I wish to call your attention to Theo- 
dore Roosevelt, now in our Legislature. He is on the 
right road to success. It is dangerous to predict a future 
for a young man, but let me say that if any man of his 
age ever was pointed straight for the Presidency, that 
man is Theodore Roosevelt." 

Even a German, Baron Speck von Sternberg, an 
attache of the Legation (afterwards Ambassador) in 

193 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Washington when Mr. Roosevelt was Civil Service Com- 
missioner, was reported as saj-ing: "When I first met 
Mr. Roosevelt I was deeply impressed with his powerful 
personality, his untiring energy, and essential sincerity 
of purpose. It was this combination which convinced me 
that some day I should see him at the head of this great 
nation." And on three separate occasions, when Roose- 
velt was appointed Police Commissioner of New York, 
Avhen he became Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and 
when he was elected Governor of New York, Baron von 
Sternberg congratulated him on these successive steps 
"nearer the Presidency." 

And yet there were men in those days, and long there- 
after, who regarded Theodore Roosevelt's success in 
national politics as "an accident"! Blinded by enmity, 
jealousy, or party rancor, they totally failed to recognize 
the sterling character and political genius of the man 
whose reputation was founded on sincerity and service, 
as upon a rock. 

Nominated for a Full Term 

As the time drew near for the Republican National 
Convention of 1904, when Mr. Roosevelt had served three 
and one-half years of McKinley's term, and had stamped 
his individuality upon the Presidency, the demand for 
his nomination and election to a full term was country- 
^^dde and undeniable. On his part, he made no secret of 
his desire for an election by the people. Politicians rec- 
ognized that his nomination and election were assured. 

The Republican Convention met in Chicago, and Pres- 
ident Roosevelt was nominated by acclamation to succeed 
himself. Charles Warren Fairbanks, of Indiana, was 
named for Vice-President. 

194 



ELECTION AS PRESIDENT 

Governor Black's Nominating Speech 
The speech placing Mr. Roosevelt's name before the 
Convention was made by former Governor Frank S. 
Black of New York, and gave a striking picture of the 
Roosevelt of those days and his strength among the peo- 
ple. Governor Black spoke in part as follows : 

Mr, President and Gentlemen of the Convention : We are 
here to inaugurate a campaign which seems already to be nearly 
closed. So wisely have the people sowed and watched and 
tended, there seems little now to do but to measure up the grain. 
They are ranging themselves not for battle, but for harvest. In 
one column, reaching from the Maine woods to the Puget Sound, 
are those people and those States which have stood so long 
together that when great emergencies arise the nation turns 
instinctively to them. In this column, vast and solid, is a major- 
ity so overwhelming that the scattered squads in opposition can 
hardly raise another army. * * * 

AN EXAMPLE OF UNITY 

In politics as in other fields, the most impressive arguments 
spring from contrast. Never has there been a more striking 
example of unity than is now afforded by this assemblage. You 
are gathered here not as factions torn by discordant views, but 
moved by one desire and intent ; you have come as the chosen 
representatives of the most enlightened party in the world. You 
meet not as strangers, for no men are strangers who hold the 
same beliefs and espouse the same cause. You may separate two 
bodies of water for a thousand years, but when once the barrier 
is removed they mingle instantly and are one. The same tradi- 
tions inspire and the same purposes actuate us all. Never in our 
lives did these purposes stand with deeper root than now. At 
least two generations have passed away since the origin of that 
great movement from which sprang the spirit which has been the 
leading impulse in American politics for half a century. In that 
movement, which was both a creation and an example, were those 
great characters which endowed the Republican party at its birth 
with the attributes of justice, equality, and progress, which have 
held it to this hour in line with the highest sentiments of man- 
kind. From these men we have inherited the desire, and to their 
memory we owe the resolution, that those great schemes of gov- 
ernment and humanity, inspired by their patriotism, and estab- 

195 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

lished by their blood, shall remain as the fixed and permanent 
emblem of their labors, and the abiding signal of the liberty and 
progress of the race. * * * 

The public mind is awake both to its opportunities and its 
dangers. Nowhere in the world, in any era, did citizenship mean 
more than it means today in America, Men of courage and 
sturdy character are ranging themselves together with a unanim- 
ity seldom seen. There is no excuse for groping in the dark, for 
the light is plain to him who will but raise his eyes. The Ameri- 
can people believe in a man or party that has convictions and 
knows why. They believe that what experience has proved it is 
idle to resist. A wise man is any fool about to die. But there 
is a wisdom which, with good fortune, may guide the living and 
the strong. That wisdom springs from reason, observation, and 
experience. Guided by these this thing is plain, and young men 
may rely upon it, that the history and purposes I have described, 
rising even to the essence and aspirations of patriotism, find their 
best concrete example in the career and doctrines of the Repub- 
lican party. 

A COMMON PURPOSE 

But not alone upon the principles of that party are its mem- 
bers in accord. With the same devotion which has marked their 
adherence to those principles, magnificent and enduring as they 
are, they have already singled out the man to bear their standard 
and to lead the way. No higher badge was ever yet conferred. 
But, great as the honor is, the circumstances which surround it 
make the honor even more profound. You have come from every 
State and Territory in this vast domain. The country and the 
town have vied with each other in sending here their contribu- 
tions to this splendid throng. Every highway in the land is 
leading here and crowded with the members of that great party 
which sees in this splendid city the symbol of its rise and power. 
Within this unexampled multitude is every rank and condition 
of free men, every creed and occupation. But today a common 
purpose and desire have engaged us all, and from every nook and 
corner of the country rises but a single choice to fill the most 
exalted office in the world. 

ROOSEVELT IN PEACE AND WAR 

He is no stranger waiting in the shade, to be called suddenly 
into public light. The American people have seen him for many 
years, and always where the fight was thickest and the greatest 
need was felt. He has been alike conspicuous in the pursuits of 

196 



ELECTION AS PRESIDENT 

peace and in the arduous stress of war. No man now living will 
forget the spring of '98, when the American mind was so inflamed 
and American patriotism so aroused; when among all the eager 
citizens surging to the front as soldiers, the man whom this con- 
vention has already in its heart was among the first to hear the 
call and answer to his name. 

Preferring peace, but not afraid of war, faithful to every 
private obligation, yet first to volunteer at the sign of national 
peril ; a leader in civil life, and yet so quick to comprehend the 
arts of war that he grew almost in a day to meet the high exac- 
tions of command. There is nothing which so tests a man as 
great and unexpected danger. He may pass his life among ordi- 
nary scenes, and what he is or does but few will ever know. But 
when the crash comes or the flames break out, a moment's time 
will single out the hero in the crowd. A flash of lightning in 
the night will reveal what years of daylight have not discovered 
to the eye. 

And so the flash of the Spanish war revealed that lofty cour- 
age and devotion which the American heart so loves, and which 
you have met again to decorate and recognize. His qualities do 
not need to be retold, for no other man in that exalted place since 
Lincoln has been so well known in every household in the land. 
He is not conservative, if conservatism means waiting till it is 
too late. He is not wise, if wisdom is to count a thing a hundred 
times if once will do. There is no regret so keen in man or coun- 
try as that which follows an opportunity unembraced. Fortune 
soars with high and rapid wing, and whoever brings it down 
must shoot with accuracy and speed. Only the man with steady 
eye and nerve, and the courage to pull the trigger brings the 
largest opportunities to the ground. He does not always listen 
while all the sages speak, but every day at nightfall beholds 
some record which, if not complete, has been at least pursued 
with conscience and intrepid resolution. 

ONE MAN ONLY — ROOSEVELT 

He is no slender flower swaying in the wind, but of that heroic 
fiber which is best nurtured by the mountains and the snow. He 
spends little time in review, for that, he knows, can be done by 
the schools. A statesman grappling with the living problems of 
the hour, he gropes but little in the past. He believes in going 
ahead. He believes that in shaping the destinies of this great 
Republic hope is a higher impulse than regret. He believes that 
preparation for future triumphs is a more important duty than 

197 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

an inventory of past mistakes, A profound student of history, 
he is today the greatest history-maker in the world. Witli tlie 
instincts of the scholar, he is yet forced from the scholar's pur- 
suits by those superb qualities which fit him to the last degree for 
those great world currents now rushing past with larger volume 
and more portentous aspect than for many years before. The 
fate of nations is still decided by their wars. You may talk of 
orderly tribunals and learned referees ; you may sing in your 
schools the gentle praises of the quiet life ; you may strike from 
your books the last note of every martial anthem, and yet out in 
the smoke and thunder will always be the tramp of horses and 
the silent, rigid, upturned face. Men may prophesy and women 
pray, but peace will come here to abide forever on this earth 
only when the dreams of childhood are the accepted charts to 
guide the destinies of men. Events are numberless and mighty, 
and no man can tell which wire runs around the world. The 
nation basking today in the quiet of contentment and repose may 
still be on the deadly circuit and tomorrow writhing in the toils 
of war. 

GREAT FIGURES IN FRONT 

This is the time when great figures must be kept in front. If 
the pressure is great, the material to resist it must be granite and 
iron. Whether we wish it or not, America is abroad in this 
world. Her interests are in every street, her name is on every 
tongue. Those interests, so sacred and stupendous, should be 
trusted only to the care of those whose power, skill, and courage 
have been tested and approved. And in the man whom you will 
choose the highest sense of every nation in the world beholds a 
man who typifies as no other living American does the spirit and 
the purposes of the twentieth century. He does not claim to be 
the Solomon of his time. There are many things he may not 
know, but this is sure, thaf above all things else he stands for 
progress, courage, and fair play, which are the synonyms of the 
American name. 

There are times when great fitness is hardly less than destiny, 
when the elements so come together that they select the agent 
they will use. Events sometimes select the strongest man, as 
lightning goes down the highest rod. And so it is with those events 
which for many months with unerring sight have led you to a 
single name which I am chosen only to pronounce. Gentlemen, 
I nominate for President of the United States the highest living 
type of the youth, the vigor, and the promise of a great country 
and a great age, Theodore Roosevelt, of New York, 

198 



ELECTION AS PRESIDENT 

A Triumphant Election 

On the opposing Democratic ticket were Alton B. 
Parker, of New York, for President, and Henry G. Davis, 
of West Virginia, for Vice-President. President Roose- 
velt made no political speeches, but practically managed 
his campaign through George B. Cortelyou, his former 
secretary, who resigned his post as Secretary of Com- 
merce and Labor to become chairman of the Republican 
National Committee. 

The campaign was without great interest, save in New 
York and several other states, where a determined effort 
was made to bring out a large Democratic vote. Perhaps 
the most interesting episode of the canvass was the charge 
made by Judge Parker on the eve of election that great 
corporations were contributing to the Republican fund 
with the knowledge of the President, and because of the 
great power wielded over them by Secretary Cortelyou as 
Secretary of Commerce and Labor. The charge was for- 
mally denied by Secretary Root in a speech, and towards 
the close of the campaign the President issued a state- 
ment putting Alton B. Parker in the Ananias Club. It 
was then that he employed his famous "square deal" 
term, saying: 

"All I ask is a square deal. Give every man a fair 
chance; don't let anyone harm him, and don't let him 
do harm to anyone. ' ' 

In the election that year Mr. Roosevelt received the 
largest popular and electoral vote ever given to a Presi- 
dent up to that time, receiving a popular majority over 
all opposing candidates of 1,729,809 votes (a plurality of 
2,541,635 votes over Parker), and in the Electoral College 
336 votes to 140 for Parker. 

He now entered upon what he considered his first real 
term. 

m 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Annual Message of 1904 

At the meeting of Congress following the election, 
President Roosevelt outlined in his annual message a 
series of far-reaching reforms, which w^ere heralded as 
making a distinct and complete break with the McKIinley 
policies which he had inherited. His proposals included 
a railway rate bill, Federal pure food regulation, a meat 
inspection measure, the removal of the tariff from dena- 
tured alcohol as a possible means of counteracting the oil 
monopoly, a thorough-going reform of the Consular Serv- 
ice, a reform in naturalization laws, and the admission 
of the remaining territories to statehood. All of these 
reforms w^ere subsequently enacted into law. 

Most Famous Diplomatic Triumph 

The war betw^een Japan and Russia which had begun 
in February, 1904, was to result eventually in one of the 
most famous diplomatic triumphs of Roosevelt's seven 
and a half years in the White House. While the terrific 
land and sea fights in the Orient were holding the atten- 
tion of the w^orld Roosevelt and his remarkable Secretary 
of State, the late John Hay, sent forth first the famous 
**Hay Note," asking that the two warring countries 
respect the neutrality of China lest a greater catas- 
trophe be precipitated. 

Russia and Japan agreed to the American request. In 
the meantime came Mr, Roosevelt's election to succeed 
himself for a full term in the White House; and some 
measure of the way America had lost its fear of a "man 
on horseback" in the Presidential chair may be gathered 
from the unprecedented size of the Colonel's plurality. 

The Russian-Japanese war w^as constantly in his 
thoughts. The beginning of his full term seemed to the 

200 



ELECTION AS PRESIDENT 

President the psychological moment to propose to Japan 
and Russia that they get together peacefully and thresh 
out their differences in conference. On June 7, 1905, the 
President sent a note to the Czar and another to the 
Mikado asking them if they did not think it would be 
best for all mankind if they met to arrange terms for 
peace. Following a long discussion as to the exact spot 
where they should meet, the peace envoys from Japan 
and Russia began to confer at Portsmouth, N. H., on 
August 10, 1905 — Washington being too hot at that time 
of the year. 

Within eight days the delegates had come to a dead- 
lock. President Roosevelt then induced the German 
Kaiser to join him in an appeal to the rulers of Russia and 
Japan. The joint appeal succeeded in inducing the 
Mikado to forego his demand for money indemnity, and 
caused the Czar to give to Japan much of the island of 
Saghalien. 

The peace treaty was signed on September 5, 1905. 
Promptly and unanimously the world arose and acclaimed 
Roosevelt the fighter as the greatest peacemaker of the 
age. The following year he received the Nobel Peace 
Prize of $40,000 for that great service. This prize is 
given annually to the person who shall have done most 
during the year to promote the peace of the world. But 
Mr. Roosevelt himself always said that his greatest con- 
tribution to the cause of peace was not the negotiation 
of the Portsmouth treaty, but his act in sending the Amer- 
ican fleet to the Pacific in 1907. He believed all his life 
that that act averted war between Japan and the United 
States, and Admiral Evans, the commander of the fleet, 
was one of those who agreed with him. 

201 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

The Panama Canal 

One of the greatest, if not the greatest, achievement 
of Mr. Roosevelt's full term was the clearing away of 
difficulties and the inauguration of actual work on the 
long-discussed plan to join the Atlantic and the Pacific by 
means of the Panama Canal. It is not too much to say 
that the world owes the Canal to the initiative and energy 
of Theodore Roosevelt. 

In 1906 the Spooner bill was passed, giving the Presi- 
dent authority to buy the old French Panama Canal Com- 
pany, lay out a water route across the isthmus, reorganize 
a canal commission, and begin to build. The work meant 
not only a battle against mountainous engineering prob- 
lems, but notable medical and sanitary problems that till 
then had defied the world. 

How well the work was done is fresh in the public 
mind, but it will be referred to again later in these pages. 

While Mr. Roosevelt was tackling his canal problems 
he put through far-reaching legislative and diplomatic 
coups that included the momentous passage of a bill giv- 
ing Federal control, or at least direction, of the business 
of interstate commerce carriers; the suppression in the 
same year, 1906, of a Cuban insurrection against Presi- 
dent Estrada Palma; and the inception of a wide-spread- 
ing conservation of America's natural resources. 

Regulating Railroad Rates 

It was in 1905 that President Roosevelt began fighting 
for the regulation of railroad rates. The Esch-Townsend 
bill, his first essay in that line, was beaten, as he had 
expected it to be ; but in 1906 he forced the Hepburn bill 
through Congress in the face of such bitter opposition 
from his own party that he was obliged to form at one 

202 



ELECTION AS PRESIDENT 

time an alliance with the Democrats. The latter charged 
bitterly that he threw them aside like a squeezed lemon 
when they had served his purpose, and the air was full 
of criminations and recriminations. 

But whatever he may have done with the Democrats, 
he had no hesitation in breaking with the leaders of his 
own party, such as Aldrich, and putting in the forefront 
one of the younger Senators, Dolliver, of Iowa, and had 
the satisfaction of putting his bill through. 

On April 14, 1906, he publicly expressed his advocacy 
of a national inheritance tax, sajdng: "We shall ulti- 
mately have to consider the adoption of some such scheme 
as that of a progressive tax on all fortunes," and subse- 
quently he declared himself in favor of an income tax. 

Loved for Enemies He Made 

It was late in 1905 that the Wall Street Journal alpha- 
betically called the roll of Mr. Roosevelt's enemies as 
follows : 

A lot of people who are afraid of a foreign policy. 

Bribers and corruptionists of all kinds. 

Corporations that fear publicity. 

Disappointed office seekers. 

Every person who still thinks that the President ought not 

to have received John Mitchell or Booker Washington. 
Financial interests that have been or are being investigated. 
Great men who find that Roosevelt is in their way. 
.High finance that puts itself above the law. 
Interests that want to kill or delay the Panama Canal. 
Jacobins who are ready for anything that will serve to turn 

the ''ins" out. 
Kangaroo politicians strong in their capacity to kick. 
**Law honesty." 
Men who squirmed under the enforcement of the Sherman 

Anti-Trust Law. 
Nicaragua Canal advocates. 
Odell (governor of New York). 

203 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Opponents of government regulation, especially railways. 

Pennsylvania's corrupt machine, recently rebuked at the 
polls. 

Railroads that have violated the law. 

Sugar lobbyists who don't want fair play given to the Phil- 
ippines. 

Shippers who want rebates. 

Trusts that have become monopolies. 

Usurers and others who don't like the doctrine of the square 
deal. 

Voters, now few in number, who want us to give up the Phil- 
ippines. 

Washington correspondents who feel that they have the right 
to run the White House. 

Xanthospermous journalism eager for a new sensation. 

You may perhaps find a few more by inquiring at 26 Broad- 
way (Standard Oil headquarters). 

Zealots who think it right to destroy even a reputation to 
benefit their party. 

The Brownsville Incident 

On December 19, 1906, he gave his official sanction to 
the discharge of Negro soldiers for a murderous attack 
which at least some of them had made on citizens of 
Brownsville, Texas, withholding his approval of the dis- 
charge of the Negroes, however, until his Secretary of 
War, William 11. Taft, had judicially reviewed all the 
facts. 

And straightway a large part of the Negroes of the 
country began to attack him again and a large part of the 
South again began to sing his praises. As always. 
Colonel Roosevelt was continuing his frank, courageous 
way. 

The Panic of 1907 

The staggering financial panic of 1907 held his whole 
mind during the dark days in which the money troubles 
of that year sent banks and large business affairs crash- 

204 



ELECTION AS PRESIDENT 

ing down like rows of cards. To meet the catastrophe the 
Roosevelt administration went to the relief of money 
markets by issuing Panama construction bonds up to 
$50,000,000, and the President and the Treasury Depart- 
ment also entered upon a plan whereby short-term notes 
at 3 per cent were issued. The upheaval soon ended and 
business returned to normal again. 

Voyage of the Battle Fleet 

Mr. Roosevelt as President was always preaching 
preparedness, paraphrasing George Washington's maxim 
to the effect that the way to preserve peace is constantly 
to be ready for war. With something of this thought in 
mind. President Roosevelt in 1908 sent a great American 
battle fleet under Admiral Evans ('* Fighting Bob") on 
a 42,000-mile trip around the world — an idea which, as 
usual, was sharply criticized by his enemies. But when 
the fleet had circled the globe, amid great acclaim from 
rulers and subjects of nations near and remote, Mr. 
Roosevelt declared that the voyage had ''exercised a 
greater influence for peace than all the peace conferences 
of the last fifty years. ' ' 

In line with his peace theories he championed the 
cause of international arbitration of world differences of 
opinion and claims; he practiced what he preached by 
submitting the Pious Fund case, over which his own 
country and Mexico long had been at loggerheads, to The 
Hague tribunal. He never laid claim to signing so many 
peace treaties as William Jennings Bryan did later; but 
he kept a great part of the world peaceful during his 
regime, whereas when Secretary Bryan had about con- 
cluded the last of his peace treaties, the whole world went 
to war. 

205 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Foreign Relations 

The most important measures of the second Roosevelt 
administration, viewed after a period of years, seem to 
have been those concerning the foreign relations of the 
United States. Important as were the happenings in 
internal affairs in the four years from March 4, 1905, to 
March 4, 1909, the final effect of the foreign policy must 
be taken to be the greater. To review, without too much 
regard for a strict chronological sequence, the course of 
events with reference to foreign relations, it may be noted 
first, that the two Secretaries of State who held office for 
the longest time under President Roosevelt were John 
Hay and Elihu Root. Hay died ^\ithin four months of 
Roosevelt's inauguration, on June 30, 1905, and Root was 
appointed on July 25. 

One of the questions which President Roosevelt inher- 
ited on coming into office was the New^foundland fisheries 
controversy, over the rights of American fishermen in 
Newfoundland waters. In 1907, through negotiations 
conducted in London, the President caused the signing of 
la protocol providing that the controversy be submitted to 
The Hague for arbitration. 

Secretary Root labored especially to improve the rela- 
tions of the United States with South America, and in 
1907 the President invited the representatives of the five 
republics of Central America to an international peace 
conference in Washington. A joint tribunal was estab- 
lished for arbitration. 

Earlier in that year Secretary Root had made a trip 
around South America, visiting the capital of each coun- 
try, and assuring the people that the purposes of the 
United States in this hemisphere were unselfish. His 

206 



ELECTION AS PRESIDENT 

visit did much to better the standing of this country in 
the eyes of the South Americans. 

In 1908 Mr. Roosevelt's popularity was at its greatest 
height, and by merely saying the word he could have had 
a third term, or rather, a second full term. In fact, it took 
his utmost efforts to prevent the party from forcing 
another term upon him. But on the night of his election 
in 1904 he had announced that he would under no circum- 
stances accept another nomination. Such a nomination 
it was, however, later to be his lot to receive under cir- 
cumstances that are^historic. 



207 



CHAPTER XII 

RECORD IN THE WHITE HOUSE 

The Panama Canl Problem Solved — Mr. Roosevelt's Con- 
servation Policy — Praise from an Impartial Source — 
His Colonial Policy — The Standard Oil Fight — Consu- 
lar Service Reformed — Appointed General Wood as 
Chief of Staff — Secret of Roosevelt's Success — Get- 
ting Close to the People. 

No triumph of Theodore Roosevelt's strenuous and 
useful life was greater than that which he achieved in 
connection with the construction of the Panama Canal. 
When he set himself in earnest at the task, he laughed at 
obstacles and simply wiped them away. His approval 
of the purchase by the United States of the property of 
the old French Panama Canal Company, and his recog- 
nition of the new Republic of Panama and the creation 
of a Canal Zone under United States jurisdiction, were 
the important steps that started the great project on its 
way and led to its successful consummation. It took his 
powers of initiative, his energy, his farsightedness, and 
his knowledge and wise choice of the right men for the 
job, to put through the gigantic undertaking and bring 
our Atlantic and Pacific coasts \vithin closer reach of 
each other, besides shortening the ocean routes for the 
commerce of the world. 

In reviewing his administration of the Presidency for 
seven and one-half years, an authority of the greatest 

208 



RECORD IN THE WHITE HOUSE 

impartiality finds that the taking over of the Panama 
Canal project was Mr. Roosevelt's greatest single 
achievement, and adds: 

*'His critics said that his course in this matter was 
unconstitutional, although the question of constitution- 
ality has never been raised before any national or inter- 
national tribunal. The fact remains that the construc- 
tion of the Panama Canal was undertaken to the practical 
satisfaction of the civilized world. But for Mr. Roose- 
velt's vigorous official action and his characteristic ability 
to inspire associates with enthusiasm, the canal would 
still be a subject of diplomatic discussion instead of a 
physical actuality." 

Progress of the work on the Panama Canal was one 
of the great events of Roosevelt's second term, as the 
beginning of that project had been of his first term. Con- 
gress decided finally upon the lock type of canal in June, 
1906, and work was pushed from that time. 

His Conservation Policy 

Another great achievement of President Roosevelt 
was the development of a national policy looking to the 
conservation of all the natural resources of the country. 
Of this policy and his intimate connection with it, the 
Encyclopedia Britannica takes the following unbiased 
view: 

''If Mr. Roosevdt did not invent the term 'conserva- 
tion,' he literally created as well as led the movement 
which made conservation in 1910 the foremost political 
and social question in the United States. The old theory 
was that the general prosperity of the country depends 
upon the development of its natural resources, a devel- 
opment which can best be achieved by private capital 
acting under the natural incentive of financial profits. 

209 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Upon this theory public land was either given away or 
sold for a trifle by the nation to individual holders. 

"While it is true that the building of railways, the 
opening of mines, the growth of the lumber industry and 
the settlement of frontier lands by hardy pioneers were 
rapidly promoted by this policy, it also resulted naturally 
in the accumulation of great wealth in the hands of a 
comparatively few men who were controlling lumber, 
coal, oil and railway transportation in a way that was 
believed to be a menace to the public welfare. Nor w^as 
the concentration of wealth the only danger of this pol- 
icy; it led to the destruction of forests, the exhaustion 
of farming soils and the wasteful mining of coal and min- 
erals, since the desire for quick profits, even when they 
entail risk to permanency of capital, is always a power- 
ful human motive. 

"Mr. Roosevelt not only framed legislation to regu- 
late this concentration of wealth and to preserve forests, 
water power, mines and arable soil, but organized depart- 
ments in his administration for carrying his legislation 
into effect. His official acts and the influence of his 
speeches and messages led to the adoption by both citi- 
zens and Government of a new theory regarding natural 
resources. 

"His theory is that the Government, acting for the 
people, who are the real owners of all public property, 
shall permanently retain the fee in public lands, leaving 
their products to be developed by private capital under 
leases w^hich are limited in their duration and which give 
the Government complete power to regulate the indus- 
trial operations of the lessees." 

In May, 1908, Mr. Roosevelt called a conference of the 
governors of all the States for the purpose of securing 

210 



RECORD IN THE WHITE HOUSE 

their support and co-operation in the conservation of 
natural resources, and succeeded in creating a strong 
public opinion to that desirable end. He thus laid the 
foundation for a vast amount of useful work which has 
since been accomplished by legislation and otherwise. 

His Colonial Policy 

In August, 1905, an insurrection broke out in Cuba 
which the existing Cuban government was powerless to 
quell. This Government was repeatedly asked by the 
then Cuban government to intervene, and finally was noti- 
fied by the President of Cuba that he intended to resign. 
President Eoosevelt sent ships to the island, and dis- 
patched the Secretary of War, William H. Taft, and the 
Assistant Secretary of State to deal with the situation on 
the ground. The United States Government remained in 
the island longer than it had expected, but was replaced 
by a new native government, under President Gomez, in 
January, 1909. 

A policy of giving to the Filipinos a larger share of 
self-government was put through in 1906, and in 1907 the 
first Philippine Assembly was called to order by Secre- 
tary Taft. 

''Strictly speaking, the United States has no colonial 
policy," according to the impartial authority already 
quoted in this chapter, ''for the Philippine Islands and 
Porto Rico can scarcely be called colonies. It has, how- 
ever, a policy of territorial expansion. Although this 
policy was entered upon at the conclusion of the Spanish 
war under the Presidency of Mr. McKinley, it has been 
very largely shaped by Mr. Roosevelt. He determined 
that Cuba should not be taken over by the United States, 
as all Europe expected it Would be, and an influential sec- 
tion of his own party hoped it would be, but should be 

211 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

given every opportunity to govern itself as an independ- 
ent republic; by assuming supervision of the finances of 
Santo Domingo he put an end to controversies in that 
unstable republic, which threatened to disturb the peace 
of Europe, and he personally inspired the body of admin- 
istrative officials in the Philippines, in Porto Rico and 
(during the American occupancy) in Cuba, who for effi- 
ciency and unselfish devotion to duty compare favorably 
with any similar body in the world. 

''In numerous speeches and addresses he expressed 
his belief in a strong colonial government, but a govern- 
ment administered for the benefit of the people under its 
control and not for the profit of the people at home. In 
this respect for the seven years of his administration at 
Washington he developed a policy of statesmanship quite 
new in the history of the L^nited States." 

The Standard Oil Fight 

The suit for the dissolution of the Standard Oil Com- 
pany was one of the most significant acts of the Roosevelt 
Administration; and, although this suit was not brought 
to a successful conclusion until 1911, the credit is due 
mainly to him. But more important in his own estima- 
tion, and from the standpoint of personal credit, was his 
work for the conservation of the natural resources of the 
countrj'. 

The culmination of a long series of addresses and 
messages on the railroads cam.e in 1906 ^^ith the enact- 
ment of the Hepburn Rate law, which was supplementary 
to the Anti-Rebate law of 1903. The passage of this bill 
was largely due to popular indignation over the abuses 
of rebates, as was also the passage of the Pure Food law 
and the Meat Inspection act. An Employers' Liability 
law was passed at this session, but was deckred uncon- 
stitutional and was replaced by a modified law^ in 1908. 

212 



RECORD IN THE WHITE HOUSE 

An important step in respect to foreign relations was 
the reform of the diplomatic and consular services. An 
executive order of November 10, 1905, appHed the merit 
system to promotions in both branches of the foreign 
service. 

Diplomatic negotiations were begun and concluded 
whereby the Japanese immigration was restricted by the 
action of that country. With other nations, with Ger- 
many, and w^th England, minor disputes over the tariff 
and Niagara Falls were satisfactorily settled. 

Another feature of the President's second Adminis- 
tration was the signing of the Oklahoma and Arizona 
statehood bills. 

Colonel Roosevelt's interest in national preparedness 
was not confined to the naval service alone. During his 
first administration he succeeded in having Congress 
enact the first General Staff Act, and he promptly 
appointed as organizer and first chief of staff Major Gen- 
eral Leonard Wood. 

Mr. Roosevelt had laid the foundation for the staff by 
securing the removal of General Wood, then an army 
surgeon, from the medical service, and his appointment 
as commander of the famous regiment of ''Rough Rid- 
ers," which the former President organized at the out- 
break of the war mth Spain. 

Some army officers have expressed the opinion that 
the importance of this first, though incomplete, victory 
over the bureaucratic system that had always ruled the 
War Department, was shown by the fact that it was not 
tmtil 1919, with all the experience of the Great War as 
a foundation, that the Department was preparing with 
hopes of success to submit to Congress a bill providing 
for full General Staff control and responsibility for all 
army matters. 

213 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Achievements as President 
President Eoosevelt's elected term ended in 1909 
after achievements of which the following are historical : 

1. Dolliver-Hepburn railroad act. 

2. Extension of forest reserve. 

3. National irrigation act. 

4. Improvement of waterways and reservation of 
water power sites. 

5. Employers' habihty act. 

6. Safety appliance act. 

7. Regulation of railroad employees' hours of labor. 

8. Establishment of Department of Commerce and 
Labor. 

9. Pure food and drugs act. 

10. Federal meat inspection. 

11. Na\y doubled in tonnage and greatly increased in 
efficiency. 

12. Battleship fleet sent around the world. 

13. State militia brought into co-ordination vrith. the 
army. 

14. Canal zone acquired and work of excavation 
pushed with increased energy. 

15. Development of civil self-government in insular 
possessions. 

16. Second intervention in Cuba; Cuba restored to 
the Cubans. 

17. Finances of Santo Domingo adjusted. 

18. Alaska boundary disputes settled. 

19. Reorganization of the consular service. 

20. Settlement of the coal strike of 1902. 

214 



RECORD IN THE WHITE HOUSE 

21. The Government upheld in the Northern Securi- 
ties decision. 

22. Conviction of post office grafters and public land 
thieves. 

23. Investigation of the sugar trust customs frauds 
and resulting prosecutions. 

24. Suits begun against the Standard Oil and tobacco 
companies and other corporations for violation of the 
Sherman anti-trust act. 

25. Corporations forbidden to contribute to political 
campaign funds. 

26. The door of China kept open to American com- 
merce. 

27. The settlement of the Eusso-Japanese war by the 
treaty of Portsmouth. 

28. Diplomatic entanglements created by the Pacific 
Coast prejudice against Japanese immigration avoided. 

29. Twenty-four treaties of general arbitration 
negotiated. 

30. Interest bearing debt reduced by more than 
$90,000,000. 

31. Annual conference of governors of states 
inaugurated. 

32. Movement for conservation of natural resources 
inaugurated. 

33. Movement for the improvement of conditions of 
country life inaugurated. 

In addition, President Roosevelt recommended 
reforms and policies subsequently obtained by his suc- 
cessor, among them being : 

1. Reform of the banking and currency system. 



215 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

3. Income tax. 

4. Passage of a new employers' liability act to meet 
objections raised by the Supreme Court. 

5. Postal savings banks, 

6. Parcel post. 

7. Revision of the Sherman anti-trust act. 

8. Legislation to prevent overcapitalization, stock 
watering and manipulations by common carriers. 

9. Legislation compelling incorporation under Fed- 
eral laws of corporations engaged in interstate commerce. 

Met All Manner of Men 

During his Presidency Mr. Roosevelt was democratic 
in his relations wdth not only men who had ideas to give 
him, but with men who were of service to him in living 
the strenuous life. ''Professor" Mike Donovan at the 
White House boxed with him, and a jiu-jitsu artist taught 
the President the secrets of that science. 

In explaining why he had "as a practical man of high 
ideals, who had always endeavored to put his ideals in 
practice," conferred with Mr. Harriman, the railroad 
magnate, and Mr. Archbold of the Standard Oil Com- 
pany, the former President made those assertions: 

''I have always acted and shall always act upon the 
theory that if, while in public office, there is any man 
from whom I think I can gain anything of value to the 
Government, I vdW send for him and talk it over with 
him, no matter how widely I differ from him on other 
points. 

''I actually sent for, while I was President, trust mag- 
nates, labor leaders. Socialists, John L. Sullivan, 'Bat- 
tling' Nelson, Dr. Lyman Abbott. I could go on indefi- 
nitely ^^^th a list of people whom at various times I have 

216 



RECORD IN THE WHITE HOUSE 

seen or sent for. And if I am elected President again I 
shall continue exactly the same course of conduct, with- 
out the deviation of a hair's breadth. And if ever I find 
that my virtue is so frail that it won't stand being 
brought into contact with either trust magnates or a 
Socialist or a labor leader, I will get out of public life." 

Secret of His Success 

The secret of Mr. Roosevelt's tremendous power, as 
explained by himself, is given in the following quotation, 
from which it is probable that the custom grew up of 
explaining him as an average man highly developed in all 
his faculties and of denying him rather sweepingly any 
decided endowment of genius : 

*'It has always seemed to me that in life there are 
two ways of achieving success, or, for that matter, of 
achieving what is commonly called greatness. One is to 
do that which can be done by the man of exceptional and 
extraordinary abilities. Of course this means that only 
one man can do it, and it is a very rare kind of success or 
greatness. The other is to do that which many men could 
do, but which, as a matter of fact, none of them actually 
does. This is the ordinary kind of greatness. 

''Nobody but one of the world's rare geniuses could 
have written the Gettysburg Speech, or the Second Inaug- 
ural, or met as Lincoln did the awful crises of the Civil 
War. But most of us can do the ordinary things which, 
however, most of us do not do. Any hardy, healthy man, 
fond of outdoor life, but not in the least an athlete, could 
lead the life I have led if he chose — and by 'choosing' I 
of course mean choosing to exercise the requisite indus- 
try, judgment and foresight, none of a very marked 
type." 

217 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

It was due to the ''vague passion for a new righte- 
ousness" perhaps that Mr. Roosevelt at times, instead of 
treating the tariff and currency legislation and economic 
government with his thought and pen, preached the 
*'duty of mothers to bear large families, the need for big 
business to be honest, the advantage of correct spelling, 
the desirability of making life simple, strenuous and suc- 
cessful." 

All topics "on which he could safely generalize he 
treated with assiduity," and in "no other case has the 
Executive pen dwelt so extensively upon matters gener- 
ally confined for discussion to the home, the schoolroom 
and the church." 

Idealist and Opportunist 

Roosevelt the man was both an idealist and an oppor- 
tunist — an idealist in his ends and an opportunist in his 
methods. How to adjust idealism and opportunism, how 
to live for a future ideal but in the actual present, how 
to face the facts as they are and not lose the ambition to 
make them better, is a perpetually shifting problem which 
no man can perfectly solve. 

It is true that he was criticized on the one hand by 
the practical politician for not being practical and on the 
other hand by the reformer and the scholar for sacrific- 
ing ideals to practical politics. 

The attitude of Mr. Roosevelt toward the governing 
of men has been said to be that of "a strong man rejoic- 
ing," as leadership ^^^th him was instinctive. The hurly- 
burly of conflict impending and actual "was to him a 
great gladness." Joy in work — the elation and exulta- 
tion of strong competition — was often the motive power 
of his accomplishment. 

21F 



KECORD IN THE WHITE HOUSE 

The seven and a half years of his Presidency were rife 
with struggle and conflict, and having come through the 
years of contention and having revelled in every minute 
of them, he was '' deterred from entering no fight because 
the contest was likely to be hot. ' ' When he left the Presi- 
dency he said, '^I have had a corking time." 

The description of one of his adherents during the 
years of his Presidency stands in contrast with other 
words of Roosevelt's own, as follows: 

**In Washington, during the crises of his Presidency, 
when he was being badgered and thwarted beyond endur- 
ance, when schemes on which his whole heart were set 
were in peril, he sometimes exploded with anger, scorn, 
and denunciation, and the outburst was always one of 
exhilaration. It was tonic to him to be in a fight and 
hitting the hardest, and his vehemence was that of the 
natural, pugnacious, elemental man with his back to the 
walk" 

Getting Close to the People 

President Roosevelt's popularity throughout the coun- 
try was attested by the enthusiastic receptions extended 
to him by the people of the United States during the 
various trips he made. Even President McKinley, 
warmly as he was held in esteem by the people of the 
country, received no more cordial welcomes than Presi- 
dent Roosevelt in his tours over the United States. Both 
Presidents came in contact with the people directly; 
talked to them from the rear end of their cars ; from the 
platforms in crowded houses and halls ; and looking into 
the faces of those in front of him President Roosevelt 
seldom indeed had reason to suppose that there was any 
feeling against him anywhere. He believed that there 
was no better way of getting close to the people than by 

219 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

going around among them, talking to them, and shaking 
their hands. 

During his first term of office the President made 
about thirty-five trips out of Washington. Most of these 
were very short, being for the purpose of making speeches 
at various points in response to the wishes of conven- 
tions, societies, etc. ; going to his home in Oyster Bay to 
vote or spend the summer; visiting his alma mater and 
friends at Harvard ; inspecting affairs at Annapolis and 
West Point; presentfng medals for marksmanship at 
Seagirt, N. J., and short hunting trips into Virginia. The 
President's love for his eldest son, Theodore, Junior, and 
the natural anxiety of a father, induced him to spend five 
days at Groton, Massachusetts, in February, 1902, when 
Theodore, Jr., lay at the point of death from pneumonia. 
The faithful father remained at the bedside of his son 
until the crisis had passed. 

At the Charleston Exposition 

The first tour of prominence taken by the President 
was to the Charleston, S. C, Exposition, in April, 1902. 
The President spent some time in Charleston, and was 
most cordially received there. His next trip was to Pitts- 
burgh on the 4th of July, 1902, at which time he delivered 
a speech to 50,000 people and received an ovation. His 
speech was significant, in connection with his attitude 
on the trust question and his intention to have the Attor- 
ney-General proceed against those that were beUevod to 
be violating the Sherman and other anti-trust laws. Mr. 
Roosevelt at that time plainly indicated that the laws of 
the country must be obeyed by individuals and corpora- 
tions; that there would be no discriminations against 
one or the other, but that no matter how tremendously 
wealthy a corporation might be, it could not exist if it 



RECORD IN THE WHITE HOUSE 

was operating in \iolation of the laws of the United 
States. It was about this time that he directed Attorney- 
General Knox to begin an investigation of the operations 
of some of the big trusts, and these investigations led 
to proceedings which have become famous in the legal 
annals of the United States. 

Three important trips were made by the President in 
the late summer and fall of 1902. One was to the New 
England States, and lasted from August 2 to September 
3. The President visited a number of cities in the dif- 
ferent States, and everywhere was received in the most 
generous manner. It was at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 
while on this journey, that he came near losing his life. 
While driving across the country his carriage was struck 
by a trolley car and overturned, killing Secret Service 
Detective Craig, and seriously injuring the President, 
former Governor Crane of Massachusetts, and Secretary 
Cortelyou. Despite the severity of his own wounds 
and the seriousness of the shock, the President's first 
thoughts were for the Secret Service officer, who had 
been knocked from the box where he had been riding with 
the driver. He was very much shocked when he learned 
that Craig had been killed. 

Everywhere on this journey the President made 
speeches which showed the variety of subjects with which 
he was acquainted, and the depth of his information on 
these subjects. The speeches were conservative, thought- 
ful, and tactful, and went far toward establishing him in 
the confidence of the people. 

Attends Firemen's Convention 

After the New England trip. President Roosevelt 
made a journey to Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the pur- 
pose of attending the biennial convention of the Brother- 

221 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

hood of Locomotive Firemen. On his way to Chatta- 
nooga, he went through West Virginia, Ohio, and Ken- 
tucky, speaking at Wheehng and several points in Ohio. 
At every one of these places he was received with great 
cordiahty, and the people freely applauded his speeches. 
In Chattanooga the locomotive firemen received him vdih 
great warmth, and the people of the city entertained him 
in the most hospitable manner. The firemen elected the 
President an honorary member of their Brotherhood, and 
the speech he made to them won for him the lasting 
friendship of the members of this organization, and of 
all railroad organizations in the United States. He com- 
pared the hazardous duties of the engineer, fireman, con- 
ductor, and other railroad employees to those of a sol- 
dier, and said that he had often declared that there was 
no class of men in the world braver or more noble than 
railroad men, who took their lives in their hands daily, 
and whose courage, endurance, and manhood frequently 
saved hundreds of lives, often at the sacrifice of their 
own. 

Recalled the Days of Chickamauga 

While in Chattanooga, Mr. Roosevelt went over the 
battlefields of Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain, and 
Chickamauga, having the various points of interest 
pointed out to him by officers in the army stationed in the 
neighborhood. 

It was upon his arrival at the battlefield of Chicka- 
mauga that those with the President and the thousands 
that were assembled there got an exhibition of the Presi- 
dent's splendid horsemanship. The finest troop of cav- 
alry stationed at Chickamauga rode up to the President 's 
carriage, and a splendid cavalry charger was put at his 
disposal. He vaulted into the saddle with the ease of the 

222 



RECORD IN THE WHITE HOUSE 

most experienced and graceful cavalryman, and then gal- 
loped away at a pace which unsaddled several of the 
troopers, caused others to lose their caps, and still others 
to lose their places in the ranks. The President outrode 
every trooper in the company, and after that there was 
not a soldier among them who would not have given his 
life for the Chief Executive. No word or act could have 
done more to enshrine Theodore Roosevelt in the hearts 
of the soldiers than his daring ride across the dusty bat- 
tlefields of Chickamauga that day. And he evidently 
enjoyed every moment of the experience. 
Trip Over the Northwest 

Returning from Chattanooga, the President stopped 
at Knoxville and other points in Tennessee, visited Ashe- 
ville. North Carolina, and made talks at other points in 
that State and Virginia on his way back. 

Ten days after the return from this tour the President 
started on a five days' trip over the Northwest, visiting 
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and other States. On this 
trip the great respect and esteem of the people were 
shown in their reception of his speeches and other joyous 
greetings. 

In 1903 Mr. Roosevelt made a notable fourteen-thou- 
sand-mile journey across the country from ocean to ocean 
and through the Southwest. He revisited the scenes in 
North Dakota of his ranching days and was everywhere 
received with enthusiastic acclaim. Interesting details 
of this trip, with summaries of the numerous addresses 
made by the President en route, have been given by Mr. 
Addison C. Thomas in his excellent work entitled ** Roose- 
velt Among the People" (The L. W. Walter Company, 
Chicago) — a work which received the personal endorse- 
ment of Colonel Roosevelt. 

223 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Scandalized the Senators 

President Roosevelt probably was the only occupant 
of the \Miite House who ever had boxing matches within 
its sacred precincts. Mike Donovan used to go there fre- 
quently to meet the President. Mr. Roosevelt also used 
to fence with his old commander, General Leonard Wood, 
and once nearly disabled the General, it is said. He also 
staged a motion-picture play in the White House, show- 
ing his old Oklahoma friend. Jack Abernathy, killing 
wolves with his bare hands. Jack was among those pres- 
ent, and so were General Wood and several ambassadors. 

It gave great scandal to many reverend senators to 
see the w^ay in which such successors of Leatherstocking 
as Abernathy and Bill Sewall went to the White House 
and got the President's ear for hours at a time. Before 
Senator Hoar had come to know Mr. Roosevelt as he 
afterwards did, he went to the \Vhite House to remon- 
strate with him for appointing Ben Daniels marshal of 
Arizona. Mr. Hoar was one of the most dignified and 
sedate men in the Senate. 

'*Mr. President," said Mr. Hoar in horrified accents, 
'*do you know anything about the character of this man 
Daniels you have appointed to be marshal of Arizona?" 

''Why, yes, I think so," said Mr. Roosevelt, ''he was 
a member of my regiment." 

"Do you know," said Mr. Hoar, impressively, "that 
he has killed three men!" 

The President was scandalized. "You don't mean 
it," he said. 

"It is a fact," said Mr. Hoar. 

The President was thoroughly indignant. He pounded 
his fist on the table. "When I get hold of Daniels," he 

224 



RECORD IN THE WHITE HOUSE 

said, ' ' I will read him the riot act. He told me he 'd only 
killed two." 

Mr. Roosevelt had a vigorous vocabulary and was 
never bactward about using it in a fight. He branded so 
many men as liars that a newspaper humorist coined the 
name "Ananias Club" and used it to include most of 
those who had incurred Mr. Roosevelt's enmity. The 
name stuck and the laugh lasted, but it did not deter Mr. 
Roosevelt from continuing to call people liars, in plain 
language, when the occasion and the circumstances 
seemed to justify him in doing so. 

Blinded by a Blow 

In all his athletic training and contests Mr. Roosevelt 
asked no favors of an opponent. He liked to give and 
take the hardest blows in boxing, as in politics, and no 
opponent was expected to "go easy" with him, when he 
was in the WTiite House or at any other time. Nothing 
illustrates this rule better than an episode which the 
Colonel himself made public, only after the lapse of 
twelve years. In October, 1917, in the course of an inter- 
view with newspaper men, he told this story in explana- 
tion of his relinquishing the practice of boxing: 

"When I was President I used to box with one of my 
aides, a young captain in the artillery. One day he cross- 
countered me and broke a blood vessel in my left eye. I 
don't know whether this is known, but I never have been 
able to see out of that eye since. I thought, as only one 
good eye was left me, I would not box any longer." 

This story was too promising for the newspaper men 
to let drop without endeavoring to have it amplified by 
the soldier who delivered the blow. 

225 



LIFE 01 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

A few days later, in the New York Times, appeared 
this interview witii Colonel Dan T. Moore, of the United 
States Army : 

Camp Meade, Md., Oct. 27, 1917.— Colonel Dan T. 
Moore of the 310th Field Artillery Regiment, 79th Di- 
vision, National Army, admits he struck the blow that 
destroyed the sight of Colonel Roosevelt's eye. He said: 

''I am sorry I struck the blow. I'm sorry the Colonel 
told about it, and I'm sorry my identity has been so 
quickly uncovered. I give you my word I never knew I 
had bhnded the Colonel in one eye until I read his state- 
ment in the paper a few days ago. I instantly knew, 
however, that I was the man referred to, because there 
was no other answering the description he gave who could 
have done it. I shall write the Colonel a letter expressing 
my regrets at the serious results of the blow. 

''I was a military aide at the White House in 1905. 
The boxers in the White House gym were the President, 
Kermit Roosevelt, and myself. The President went 
farther afield for his opponents in other sports, but w^hen 
he wanted to don the boxing gloves he chose Kermit or 
myself. ' ' 

''Tell about the blow that blinded the President." 

''I might as well try to tell about the shell that killed 
any particular soldier in this war. When you put on 
gloves with President Roosevelt it was a case of fight all 
the way, and no man in the ring with him had a chance 
to keep track of particular blows. A good fast referee 
might have known, but nobody else. The Colonel wanted 
plenty of action, and he usually got it. He had no use 
for a quitter or one who gave ground, and nobody but a 
man willing to fight all the time and all the way had a 
chance \\dth him. That's my only excuse for the fact that 

226 



RECOED IN THE WHITE HOUSE 

I seriously injured him. There was no chance to be care- 
ful of the blows. He simply wouldn't have stood for it." 

Colonel Roosevelt, when informed of Colonel Moore's 
statement, said: "There is nothing more to say about 
the matter." 

There was Roosevelt the Man all over. What other 
man, in public or in private life, would have suffered 
such an injury in silence, and concealed it from even his 
intimate friends, for a period of twelve years'? 

Helps Taft to a Nomination 

In accordance with his assertion that he would not run 
for the Presidency again, the President, throughout the 
year 1908, worked strenuously for the nomination and 
election of his personal candidate, William H. Taft, then 
Secretary of War. The Republican Convention met in 
Chicago on June 18. Mr. Taft was nominated on the first 
ballot, and the following day James S. Sherman was 
named for Vice-President. 



227 



CHAPTER XIII 
IN AFRICA AND EUROPE 

Departure for Big-Game Hunting in the African Jungle 
— Description of a Buffalo Hunt — The Colonel's Vigor 
and Endurance — Return to Civilization — Travels in 
Europe — Honored by Potentates a/nd People — The 
Incident in Rome — His Return Home — Roosevelt and 
Taft. 

President Eoosevelt's elected term in the White 
House ended on March 4, 1909, when William H. Taft 
was inaugurated as his successor. On that day Mr. 
Roosevelt left Washington. His plans were already made 
for a prolonged hunting trip, in search of big game, in 
the wilds of Africa. 

The nomination and election of Mr. Taft had been 
undoubtedly due to the initiative and influence of the 
retiring President. Mr. Taft was his Secretary of War, 
his friend, and his personal choice for the Presidency. 
Into the campaign for his election the Colonel had thro\vn 
all the weight of his great prestige and popularity, and 
Mr. Taft was elected by a plurality of 1,269,900 over his 
Democratic opponent, William J. Bryan. The common 
expectation therefore was that President Taft would con- 
tinue Mr. Roosevelt's well-defined policies, particularly in 
the matter of the conservation of natural resources, and 
would also retain in office such friends and appointees of 
Mr. Roosevelt as were especially identified ^^ith those 
policies. 

228 



iM AFRICA AND EUROPE 

But whether or not any definite agreement existed 
between the two men as regards the course Mr. Taft 
should pursue generally in domestic and foreign policies, 
no person surely knows or knew except the late Colonel 
Eoosevelt and the living ex-President Taft. 

It is measurably certain, however, from events that 
soon developed, that the Colonel was not merely disap- 
pointed but actually incensed at Mr. Taft's failure to fol- 
low certain Rooseveltian conceptions of policy. It may 
have been for that reason that Colonel Roosevelt precipi- 
tated himself, or was precipitated, into the sensational 
campaign of the Progressive party in 1912. 

Much, however, was to take place in his interesting 
life before that political explosion shook the forty-eight 
States. What to do with his abounding energy after 
leaving the Presidency had been in Colonel Roosevelt's 
mind for many months. He had talked it over with his 
famous '^Tennis Cabinet," all good friends and good 
sportsmen, and had come to the decision that his yearn- 
ing for the relaxation of outdoor adventure and big-game 
shooting would find its heartiest expression in Africa. 

Departure for Africa 

After a short period of comparative quiet in prepara- 
tion for his African trip, he sailed for the Mediterranean 
on March 23, 1909. 

He went to Africa as most men would go on an ordi- 
nary vacation hunting trip. Accompanied by his son, 
Kermit, and a modest entourage, he aimed at the acquisi- 
tion of specimens of the fauna and flora of the little- 
known regions of the Dark Continent, as well as the 
thrills of big-game shooting. Kermit was to act as the 
photographer of the party. 

No time was lost en route to the hunting grounds, the 

229 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

party being joined before going into the interior of 
Africa by II. J. Cuniughame, the famous hunter of big 
game. 

The expedition was in the wilderness until the middle 
of the following March, during which time it was almost 
completely cut off from communication with the outer 
world. One result was a collection which scientists have 
said was of unusual value to students of natural history. 
His experiences have been described by Colonel Roosevelt 
in his ''African Game Trails," published by Charles 
Scribner's Sons. 

Hunting the African Buffalo 

One of the experiences he had long been anticipating 
was the shooting of buffalo. The former President hunted 
buffalo to his heart's content on Heatley's Ranch, which 
comprised some 20,000 acres between the Rewero and 
Kamiti rivers, and was seventeen miles long and four 
miles wide. The Kamiti was described as a queer little 
stream, running through a dense, broad swamp of tall 
papyrus, the home of a buffalo herd numbering one hun- 
dred individuals, and was all but impenetrable. 

''There is no doubt," Colonel Roosevelt wrote, "that 
under certain circumstances buffalo, in addition to show- 
ing themselves exceedingly dangerous opponents when 
wounded by hunters, become truculent and inclined to 
take the offensive themselves. There are places in East 
Africa where as regards at least certain herds this seems 
to be the case; and in Uganda the buffalo have caused 
such loss of life and such damage to the native plantations 
that they are now ranked as vermin and not as game, and 
their killing is encouraged in every possible way." 

Continuing with his description of a hunt in Heatley's 
swamp the hunter-naturalist goes on : 

230 



IN AFBICA AND EUROPE 

* * Cautiously threa :ling our way along the edge of the 
swamp we got within 150 yards of the buffalo before we 
were perceived. There were four bulls, grazing close by 
the edge of the swamp, their black bodies glistening in the 
early sun rays, their massive horns showing white, and 
the cow herons perched on their backs. They stared sul- 
lenly at us with outstretched heads from under their 
great frontlets of horn. 

''The biggest of the four stood a little out from the 
other three, and at him I fired, the bullet ttUing with a 
smack on the tough hide and going through the lungs. We 
had been afraid they would at once turn into the papyrus, 
but instead of this they started straight across our front, 
directly for the open country. 

"This was a piece of huge good luck. Kermit put his 
first barrel into the second bull and I my second barrel 
into one of the others, after which it became impossible 
to say which bullet struck which animal, as the firing 
became general. They ran a quarter of a mile into the 
open, and then the big bull I had first shot, and which had 
no other bullet in him, dropped dead, while the other 
three, all of which were wounded, halted beside him. 
Dropped One at Long Range 

*'We walked toward them rather expecting a charge, 
but when we were still over 200 yards away they started 
back for the swamp and we began firing. The distance 
being long, I used my Winchester. Aiming well before 
one bull he dropped to the shot as if poleaxed, faUing 
straight on his back with his legs kicking, but in a moment 
he was up again and after the others. Later I found 
that the bullet, a full metal patch, had struck him in the 
head but did not penetrate the brain, and merely stunned 
him for the moment. 

231 



LIFE OF THEODORE EOOSEVELT 

"All the time we kept running diagonally to their line 
of flight. They were all three badly wounded, and when 
they reached the tall rank grass, high as a man's head, 
which fringed the papyrus swamp, the two foremost lay 
down, while the last one, the one I had floored with the 
Winchester, turned, and with nose outstretched began to 
come toward us. He was badly crippled, however, and 
with a soft-nosed bullet from my heavy Holland I knocked 
him down, this time for good. The other two then rose, 
and though each was again hit they reached the swamp, 
one of them to our right, the other to the left, where the 
papyrus came out in a point. ' ' 

With Roosevelt in Africa 

As well qualified, perhaps, as any other man to give 
personal reminiscences of Theodore Roosevelt as a hunter 
is E. M. Newman, the travel-lecturer. He was with the 
Colonel on the famous hunting trip. 

For seven months they were together in Africa. That 
meant that they were leaders of a large hunting party, 
consisting of eight white men and 375 savages. Colonel 
Roosevelt was under contract to his publishers for a 
series of articles, and Mr. Newman was, of course, seek- 
ing material for his subsequent lectures, 

"We met," said Mr. Newman, "at Juja farm as the 
guests of William Northrup Macmillan of St. Louis. The 
farm was near Nairobi — and by near I mean a ride of two 
days by horseback. Nairobi is the capital of British 
East Africa. 

"The Macmillan bungalow was a comfortable place, 
roughly built, but furnished much as an American home 
would be, and lighted by its own electric plant. From the 
porch of that bungalow it was possible to see many 

232 



I 



IN AFRICA AND EUROPE 

scores of wild animals near at hand, but no hunting was 
permitted in the immediate vicinity. 

**Our long trips took us into the wilds and together 
we penetrated the jungles, the Colonel outwalking all the 
rest and often wearing out the men in attendance. Tired 
as the other members of the party were at night after one 
of the arduous days, Colonel Eoosevelt was never too 
weary to sit up far into the night reading or writing. I 
mention this to show the vigor and endurance of the 
man. He carried with him to Africa a large number of 
books, for his reading was extensive and varied. 

"In our long talks, continued Mr. Newman, ** around 
the camp fire or on our walks there were some outstand- 
ing characteristics that I noted particularly. These were 
the man's Americanism — his belief in and hope for 
American ideals and principles ; and next to that his joy 
and pride in his family. I should have called him the 
ideal father. BQs views on matrimony and the duty of 
bringing up children are well known, and these were fre- 
quent subjects of conversation between us, the Colonel 
always maintaining that an unmarried man or woman 
was an abomination in the sight of the Lord." 

"What of the truth of the statement that Colonel 
Roosevelt was fond of killing and wantonly destroyed 
life?" 

"I should say there was no truth in it," stoutly 
declared Mr. Newman. "He hunted only in the interest 
of science, collecting rare animals, and with the exception 
of lions, which are considered vermin in South Africa, 
detested by the farmer, he killed only such animals as 
were needed for his collection. In fact, when I asked him 
at the beginning of our hunt whether he was a good shot, 
he answered *I shoot often.' 

233 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

''His one stipulation when he formed our party was 
that the subject of politics should be taboo. The Colonel 
had just finished his second term as President, and was 
in need of a complete change. That was the reason he 
chose lion hunting in Africa. We adhered strictly to our 
agreement, but sometimes the Colonel would tell of some 
experience. 

''No fight was ever too hot for him, and he admired 
nothing more than a man who was a good fighter. He 
had no use for a 'mollycoddle' or a 'quitter.' Many a 
time he has said of some opponent, 'My! Didn't he give 
me a bully fight?' 

"His versatility was remarkable, and on nearly every 
subject he was not only at home, but an authority. This 
I gathered from the respect with which experts treated 
his statements. Whether it was banking, farming or 
advising the British in the treatment of the natives, his 
opinions were seriously considered." 

Summing up Colonel Roosevelt's virtues, Mr. New- 
man called him "positive in his views, decided in his 
principles, but yet tolerant of religious beliefs different 
from his own ; loyal to friends, gentle in his affections, a 
great companion, a great man." 

Travels in Europe 

At the close of the African expedition. Colonel Roose- 
velt spent the spring and early summer months of 1910 
in traveling through Egypt, Continental Europe, and 
England, accepting many invitations to make public 
addresses in those countries. Everywhere he was wel- 
comed with popular and official ovations suggestive of 
royal distinction. He received honorary degrees from the 
universities of Cairo, Christiania, Berlin, Cambridge and 
Oxford. 

234 



1 



IN AFRICA AND EUROPE 

Hobnobbed with the Kaiser 

As a former President, his tour through Europe was 
both triumphant and sensational. He hobnobbed ^ ith 
the German Kaiser, lectured at the Sorbonne and at 
Oxford University, was received with high honors in 
Sweden and Holland, and roused a storm in London by 
his speech at the Guildhall. It was in this speech that 
he lectured England on her duty in Egypt. He displayed 
an extraordinary famiUarity with Egyptian affairs, but 
brought down upon himself a tempest of criticism by 
saying : 

' ' Now, either you have the right to be in Egypt or you 
have not. Either it is or is not your duty to establish and 
keep order. If you feel you have not the right to be in 
Egypt, if you do not wish to establish and keep order 
there, why, then, by all means get out. 

''As I hope you feel that your duty to civilized man- 
kind and your fealty to your own great traditions alike 
bid you to stay, then make the fact and name agree ; and 
show that you are ready to meet in very deed the respon- 
sibility which is yours." 

The criticism which this speech brought down on 
Roosevelt, to do the English justice, did not come from 
them; it came chiefly from scandalized Americans, who 
were horrified at the idea of a fellow-American under- 
taking to lecture a friendly power on its problems. The 
English took it very well and seemed to like it. France 
criticized it and Germany was bitter. 

Fought on Enemy's Ground 
In France, Roosevelt followed his usual policy of 
intrepidly attacking what he believed to be local evils in 
their home. It was not in London nor in Berlin that he 

235 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

preached his anti-race suicide doctrine ; it was in Paris. 
It was from the same motive that impelled him when dur- 
ing Ms campaign for the Presidency in 1912 he refrained 
fro^n attacking the Democratic party until he got into 
the South, the home and birthplace of the Democratic 
party, and delivered his blast against it. If there had 
been anything timorous about him he would have made 
his attack in Minnesota, where it would have been safe. 
Instead, he picked out Atlanta, where it is almost treason 
to say a word against Democracy, and where his audience 
was made up entirely of Democrats. 

His defiant challenge was met by a roar from the 
audience. Their intention of howling him down and 
keeping him from having a hearing was manifest from 
the moment he began his assault. For five minutes the 
tumult went on. It seemed as if his speaking were at an 
end. Eoosevelt suddenly adopted one of the most 
unusual weapons ever employed by a stump speaker. 
There was a table near him, and he leaped upon it. The 
riotous mob was startled into stillness ; they had no idea 
of his purpose, and they waited to see what he would do. 
Before they could recover from their surprise he had 
shot half a dozen sentences at them, and by that time they 
had come imder the spell and were willing to give him a 
hearing. 

This story had nothing to do with Roosevelt's Euro- 
pean tour and is told out of its regular order, but it is a 
good illustration of the way in which the Colonel always 
showed his courage by picking out the places where he 
knew any particular doctrine of his would be particularly 
unpalatable. When ho had a message, he tried to deliver 
it where it would do most good. 

236 



IN AFRICA AND EUROPE 

Stirred Widespread Comment 

The demonstrations of the European countries, the 
appearance of an American before learned bodies of for- 
eign countries whom he addressed frequently in their own 
languages, his advice to the young Egyptians, and his 
Guildhall speech in England awakened a severe analysis 
of Roosevelt not so much as a statesman, for his adminis- 
trative achievements were reasonably well known, but as 
a scholar, reader, student and author. 

His knowledge of general linguistic law was masterly 
and he was a scholar of the first rank in the classics. The 
savants of the Sorbonne heard him address them in as 
flawless French as they themselves could employ, and he 
spoke German with all the fluency of a highly-educated 
native. His knowledge of Spanish made interpreters 
superfluous on his South American travels, and he was 
equally familiar with Italian and other tongues. 

How the Colonel, in his crowded years, had ever found 
time to equip himself thus thoroughly in this direction 
was always a matter of wonderment to his friends. 

The Incident in Rome 

Colonel Roosevelt's progress through Europe on his 
return from the jungle was indeed a triumph such as 
never before had been accorded to an American citizen. 
He was everywhere t gated as if he were the ruler of a 
nation making a toui Even General Grant's journey 
around the world did n t compare with it. 

In Rome occurred one of the most sensational inci- 
dents of Mr. Roosevelt's career, and there have been few 
which so well illustrate his character. An audience had 
been arranged for him with the Pope. Some time before 
the Pope had refused to see former Vice President Fair- 

237 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

banks because that gentleman had made an address to the 
Methodists in Rome. 

A message was conveyed to Colonel Roosevelt through 
the American Ambassador in the f ollo^^^ng terms : 

''The Holy Father will be delighted to grant audience 
to Mr. Roosevelt on April 5 and hopes nothing will arise 
to prevent, such as the much-regretted incident which 
made the reception of Mr. Fairbanks impossible." 

The Colonel immediately sent the following to Ambas- 
sador Leishman : 

''It would be a real pleasure to me to be presented to 
the Holy Father, for whom I entertain a high respect, 
both personally and as the head of a great Church. I fully 
recognize his entire right to receive or not to receive_ 
whomsoever he chooses, for any reason that seems good 
to him, and if he does not receive me I shall not for one 
moment question the propriety of his action. 

"On the other hand, I, in my turn, must decline to' 
make any conditions which in any way limit my freedom. 
I trust on April 5 he will find it convenient to receive me. '* 

The answer was conveyed through the Ambassador 
that "the audience could not take place except on the 
understanding expressed in the former message." 

Colonel Roosevelt instantly replied: "Proposed pre- 
sentation is, of course, now impossible." 

The Methodists of Rome undertook to make capital 
out of the incident and issued a statement attacking the 
Pope. Colonel Roosevelt immediately rebuked them by 
cancelling an appointment he had made to meet them at a 
reception at Mr. Leishniari's home. He wanted it made 
clear that he had no sectarian prejudices and had stood 
simply on his rights as an American citizen. 

238 



IN AFRICA AND EUROPE 

His Return Home 

He came back to his own country, having had a ''bully 
time," almost at the outset of the campaign for Governor 
in New York State in 1910, and the recaption he got from 
New York City and the nation still stands as the most 
spontaneous outburst of admiration and respect for a 
citizen that the country ever showed. No man who par- 
ticipated in it that brilliant day upon the North River, 
when the former President's yacht passed up a li^ie of 
saluting warships, when he himsell stc od upon the bridge, 
his eyes filled with tears ; when all tho whistles were blast- 
ing a merry salute, and when thousands were weeping 
from the sheer emotion of a great moment, can ever 
forget the day. 

Becoming at once ''contributing editcr" of The Out- 
look, he wrote essays on politics, economics, and social 
matters until he threw himself with characteristic energy 
into the campaign in behalf of his old friand and associate 
in government, Henry L. Stimson, the Republican candi- 
date for Governor. He beat the Republican Old Guard in 
the convention fight at Syracuse, carr^dng everything 
before his electric energy, but he could i st elect k^ timson, 
the State turning to the Democracy vhat /ear. 

Roosevelt and Taft 

A coolness that had sprung up between the Colonel 
and Mr. Taft in the period between the election and the 
inauguration of the latter, was increased by the reports 
that reached Colonel Roosevelt as he emerged from the 
African jungle ; and when he reached the United States 
in June, 1910, he was already an opponent of Taft. The 
coolness probably had its origin in little things, but was 
intensified when it became evident that President Taft 

239 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

intended to change the Roosevelt policies in important 
respects and to remove Colonel Roosevelt's friends from 
office. 

The results of the breach between the two were impor- 
tant and far-reaching, and it was not until they shook 
hands with each other at a Union League dinner in New 
York in 1916 that the breach was publicly healed. But 
many things happened to both Roosevelt and Taft before 
that day of reconciliation arrived. 

The Colonel becarie once more an active factor in 
politics in the fall o"' 1910, after his return from Europe. 
As Mr. Taft's administration drew toward its close, from 
every part of the (ountry there came in 1912 a strong 
demand that Theodore Ro )sevelt be again a candidate 
for the Presid m 3y. For a long time the Colonel was 
silent; then a lefinite opportunity was afforded him to 
decide an 1 speak. 



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Theodore Roosevelt at Six Stages of His Ufe. 
TOP: The Boy — The Harvard Man — The Assemblyman. 
BOTTOM: The Governor — The President — The Explorer. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY 

Roosevelt Chosen at the Primaries for President, hut 
Denied a Nomination by the Bosses — Birth of the 
''Bull Moose" Party— He Is Nominated as Its Stand- 
ard Bearer — Shot by a Crank in Milwaukee — His 
Courage and Endurance — Results of the Campaign — 
Taft Defeated and Wilson Elected. 

As the time approached for the Presidential nomina- 
tions in 1912, President Taft, relying on precedent, was 
an avowed candidate to succeed himself. But the people 
at large were more concerned with the attitude of Theo- 
dore Roosevelt. His friends, through the press and on 
the public platform, had been for some time attacking 
President Taft's policies, and the result was a factional 
fight within the Republican party all over the land. 

The insurgent or progressive element in the Repub- 
lican party planned early in 1911 to defeat the renomina- 
tion of President Taft, and after several conferences 
among leading progressive Senators it was decided to put 
forward Robert M. La Follette as the candidate. A 
La Follette boom was started and carried on all through 
that year. But a large element among the Progressives 
was dissatisfied and wanted the nomination of Roosevelt. 

The Roosevelt talk would not down. The Colonel him- 
self was noncommittal, but it was evident that he was 
not displeased with the situation. The Roosevelt talk 
steadily waxed and the La Follette boom as steadily 
waned. 

241 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Popular opinion in favor of another nomination for 
the Colonel finally crystallized into a formal request by 
the Governors of seven states that he give a definite 
answer to the question, ''Will you run for the Presidency 
in this campaign ? ' ' 

In an open letter to the Governors, Colonel Roosevelt 
then announced his candidacy and began a characteristic 
campaign of speeches to win the Republican nomination 
at Chicago by the votes of the people in the Presidential 
primaries which were to be held for the first time, under 
a new law. He was criticized for his candidacy in view of 
what was regarded as his pledge when he said just after 
his election in 1904 that he would not again seek the Pres- 
idency, out of respect for the two-term tradition. But he 
believed his candidacy to be justified by the popular 
demand and the fact that he had had only one elected 
term in the White House. In characteristic terms he 
said: ''My hat is in the ring," and his friends rallied to 
that slogan. 

The Progressive Party Born 

The stirring events of the Presidential primary, the 
conventions, and the campaign of 1912 will be long remem- 
bered. Out of the conflict of clasliing claims ^nthin the 
Republican party, Colonel Roosevelt emerged with a very 
large majority over Mr. Taft of the votes cast in the 
primary election. Then, chosen by the people to be their 
standard bearer, he was denied the regular nomination of 
the Republican party when the National Convention met 
in June at Chicago, because of the action of the Repub- 
lican National Committee in unseating Roosevelt dele- 
gates and qualifying Taft delegates in their stead. 

Pennsylvania Republicans had given Roosevelt 130,000 
majority over Taft in the preferential primary; IlHuois 

242 



THE PROGRESSIVE PAitTY 

had given hiin 150,000 majority ; Ohio, 47,000 ; California, 
77,000. Wisconsin, Maine, Maryland, North Dakota, 
South Dakota, Nebraska, Oregon, Minnesota, Kansas, 
Oklahoma, West Virginia, North Carolina, and other 
states, had also elected Roosevelt delegates by large 
majorities — but these delegates were refused seats in the 
National Convention by autocratic, steam-roller action 
of the party bosses that was as intolerable as it was 
unprecedented. The convention as finally organized 
stood 564 for Taft and 510 for Roosevelt. 

Colonel Roosevelt publicly declared that he was being 
robbed of the nomination, and before the Republican con- 
vention had completed its cut-and-dried v/ork of renomi- 
nating Mr. Taft, the Roosevelt partisans, already called 
Progressives, left the convention in a body and reassem- 
bled in Orchestra Hall, Chicago, where the Progressive 
party was officially formed as a protest against the action 
of the Republican National Committee. 

Then followed feverish days with plans being hur- 
riedly made for the calling of a convention of all Progres- 
sives. It was finally determined to hold a convention at 
Chicago on August 5, and there and at that time Theodore 
Roosevelt was nominated by a gathering which seemed 
actuated by a deeply religious inspiration. Against Taft 
and Roosevelt, the Democratic party nominated Woodrow 
Wilson, then Governor of the State of New Jersey and 
before that president of Princeton University. 

Mr. Roosevelt's running mate on the ticket was Hiram 
A. Johnson of California, while Mr. Taft's was James S. 
Sherman of New York. 

The national platform of the new Progressive party 
was a remarkable declaration of its objects and aims. It 
declared for social and industrial justice in ringing terms, 

243 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

and for many political reforms that appealed strongly 
to the popular mind. 

The Colonel plunged into the ensuing campaign with 
all his wonted energy, and soon uttered a phrase that 
nicknamed the new party. ''I feel like a bull moose," he 
said, and *'Bull Moose" the Progressive party was called 
thereafter. 

Shot by a Maniac 

On October 14, 1912, when the Presidential campaign 
was at its height. Colonel Roosevelt had arrived in Mil- 
waukee when he was shot by Jolm Schrank, a New Yorker 
who was found to be a maniac. The Colonel was just 
seating himself in an automobile for the drive to the hall 
where he was to deliver an important address, when 
Schrank sent the bullet into his chest at short range. 

On the instant there was a movement to deal sum- 
marily with Schrank, but Colonel Roosevelt was cool, and 
himself restrained the crowd until Schrank was taken 
properly into custody. 

The bullet, having passed through the candidate's 
heavy overcoat and his other clothing, pages of manu- 
script and his spectacle case, had penetrated only two 
inches into the right breast. He was able to proceed to 
the Auditorium, and against the advice of friends and 
physicians made a speech lasting fifty-three minutes. 

This feat, which drew the applause of the world and 
caused all Americans, irrespective of their political 
beliefs, to glory in such an indomitable will and such forti- 
tude, seemed to produce no ill effects. The candidate 
went to his home in Oyster Bay M^thin a fortnight after 
being taken to a hospital in Chicago, and there continued 
his campaign by statements and messages to his followers 
through prominent Progressive political leaders. 

244 



THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY 
^tory of the Shooting 

At the time of the shooting one of Colonel Roosevelt's 
companions was Charles E. Merriam of Chicago, after- 
ward Captain Merriam. At a memorial meeting in Jan- 
uary, 1919, after the Colonel's death. Captain Merriam 
told the story of the assassin's attempt and Roosevelt's 
fortitude, as follows : 

I had the honor to be with him on the fateful day when his 
life was attempted in Milwaukee. I had gone with him on a 
special train to Milwaukee that day and was to help in the 
speaking in Milwaukee. I went down in the automobile ahead 
of Colonel Roosevelt and did not hear the §hot. I was to address 
an overflow meeting in an adjoining building, but having some 
trouble in finding my way I walked back again toward the stage. 
There came rushing down the aisle the chairman of the meeting, 
wringing his hands and saying, ''My God, they have shot him; 
he is killed." I said, "Whom do you mean?" "Why," he said, 
"the Colonel, they've killed him." 

I rushed back to the stage, back of the wings and there was 
Colonel Roosevelt standing with a group of men around him, only 
he was trying to throw them off and they apparently were 
endeavoring to hold him and he was throwing their hands aside ; 
they were struggling to stop him from speaking and he was 
fighting to go on the stage and make what he thought his last 
public address. He would not permit anyone to examine his 
wounds ; he insisted on going before the people and making his 
speech. 

It occurred to me that the wise thing to do would be to 
adjourn the meeting by telling the people that the speaker had 
been shot and suggesting that they go home. I am sure I would 
have incurred his everlasting enmity if I had done so, and it 
was decided the best policy to pursue was to allow him to appear 
before the people and say probably a few words, hoping that 
would satisfy him. We agreed upon this course and he 
advanced to make his speech. But I will never forget, as I stood 
back in the hall thinking he would speak a few words and then 
I would go on. I can hear him again in his high-keyed voice 
say, "Ladies and gentlemen, you will pardon me if I cut my 
remarks somewhat short, but the fact is I have just been shot." 

24C 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Well, some people laughed and some jeered and most of them 
were startled beyond measure. 

It was probably the most dramatic speech, certainly the most 
dramatic opening ever made by a great public leader in Amer- 
ica. I stood there for a few minutes until I saw he was going 
to make his whole talk. I went out and addressed my overflow 
meeting of perhaps a thousand people in the neighboring hall. 
I spoke hurriedly, perhaps twenty or twenty-five minutes, and 
then came dashing back. 

When I returned the Colonel was still standing, still speak- 
ing. His voice, however, was much feebler than normal. He 
was swaying from side to side as if he might at any moment 
collapse or fall. They had stationed a man in front of him, one 
in back of him and one on each side to catch him in case he 
would fall, but he went on and concluded the address that he 
had marked out for himself to make, and at the end of the speech 
which he successfully completed he was taken to the hospital. 

I went with some of the other parties to the police station, 
where we examined or helped to examine the unfortunate crea- 
ture who had fired the bullet, Schrank was his name. This indi- 
vidual told the reasons why he had fired the shot, that you will 
remember. He had been influenced by the heated campaign to 
believe that Colonel Roosevelt was a menace to the American 
Republic. He said he had two visions in which McKinley had 
appeared to him, and McKinley had told him to go and avenge 
his death by assassinating Roosevelt, and on the strength of 
these two visions (evidence of a crazy man) he had followed 
Roosevelt from one end of the country to the other. He had 
followed him to Atlanta, Ga., where he almost fired the shot; 
he followed him to Chicago, where a reception was given to him 
at the Hotel LaSalle in 1912, and there he stated he stood outside 
the door of the Hotel LaSalle when Colonel Roosevelt was as 
near to him as that chair is to me (pointing), and he could have 
killed him. We asked him why he did not shoot, and he said 
that they were giving a reception to him and it would not have 
been polite to kill a man at a reception. 

He then waited until that night when he was Ij-ing in ambush 
at the Coliseum, but as some of you recall, the crowd assembled 
at the Coliseum was so large that they filled the streets for 
blocks and blocks; ten thousand people stood there unable to 
gain admission. So we brought the Colonel around the back 
alley, in through the rear entrance and the intention of the 
assassin was foiled. 

246 



THE PROGRESSIVE PAJRTY 

Then he learned that Colonel Roosevelt was to speak in Mil- 
waukee. He took the regular train and got there earlier, while 
we went up by special train. He waited outside the train until 
Colonel Roosevelt finished his dinner, and there only by the 
slightest chance did he accomplish the fulfillment of his purpose. 
He stood on the curb, close to the automobile in which Colonel 
Roosevelt was, standing with his revolver pointed at Colonel 
Roosevelt's heart. As he was about to fire, it happened that 
someone in the crowd raised that familiar shout, "Hello, 
Teddy!" and Teddy had turned with his familiar gesture like 
that (indicating) and threw up his hand, and as he put up his 
hand Schrank fired, and instead of striking the heart it struck 
him in the right hand and thereby by a combination of circum- 
stances the bullet hit Roosevelt's spectacle case, and some two 
or three speeches that he had in his pocket folded up and the 
web of his suspenders had glanced it off to one side ; otherwise 
the bullet, penetrating the heart, probably would have succeeded 
in destroying his victim. 

We came down with Colonel Roosevelt in his car to Chicago, 
and of all the men upon the train Colonel Roosevelt was by all 
odds the calmest and the coolest. About 11 o'clock at night he 
asked for his shaving apparatus and for a glass of milk, and 
after drinking the milk he slept calmly during the night. He 
was the only man that did sleep. That shows the iron courage 
and his tremendous physical vitality and tenacity upon life. 

How He Felt After Being Shot 
Here ^s a part of the speech Colonel Roosevelt made 
in Milwaukee on October 14, 1912, just after the bullet of 
erratic John Schrank had lodged in his chest. It was 
declaratory in that dramatic moment of his joy in life and 
leadership : 

*'I do not care a rap about being shot, not a rap. The 
bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long 
speech. But I will try my best. First of all I want to 
say this about myself. I have altogether too many impor- 
tant things to think of to pay any heed or feel any concern 
over my own death. Now I would not speak to you insin- 
cerely within five minutes of being shot. I am telling you 

247 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the literal truth when I say that my concern is for many 
other things. 

"I want you to understand that I am ahead of the 
game anyway. No man has had a happier life than I have 
had, a happy life in every way. I have been able to do 
certain things that I greatly wished to do, and I am inter- 
ested in doing other things." 

Wilson Is Elected 

As had been quite generally foreseen, the campaign 
of 1912 resulted in the defeat of both Taft and Roosevelt, 
and the election, without a popular majority, of Woodrow 
Wilson. But Colonel Roosevelt made a wonderful race 
against the Democratic candidate and received more votes 
than the nominee of the Republican machine. The popu- 
lar vote stood: Wilson, 6,286,214; Roosevelt, 4,126,020; 
Taft, 3,483,922. Of the votes in the Electoral College, 
Colonel Roosevelt obtained 88 and Mr. Taft 8. Thus 
ended the famous fight of 1912, \vith the Republican party 
apparently hopelessly divided. The election proved abso- 
lutely that the Colonel had a hold upon a vast section of 
the American people that nothing whatsoever could 
break. Against his personal popularity the political 
bosses and all other antagonists exerted themselves in 

vain. 

Proved Cleanness of Life 

While the campaign was in progress stories were 

spread \videly by word of mouth that Colonel Roosevelt 

was a drunkard. He determined that as soon as this 

slander appeared in any responsible newspaper, he would 

settle it for all time by a libel suit. Similar stories, he 

said, were circulated to this day about other public men 

equally guiltless and now dead, because they never 

deemed them worthy of contradiction in their lifetime. 

248 



THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY 

Presently the charge appeared in a newspaper called 
Iron Ore, published in Ishpeming, Mich., and Colonel 
Roosevelt promptly sued for libel. The suit was tried in 
May, 1913, and the array of witnesses that the plaintiff 
produced never was equaled in any suit in recent times. 
Admirals, generals. Cabinet officers. Senators, Governors, 
authors, newspaper men, and, in fact, all the men who had 
been intimately associated with the Colonel, appeared to 
give their testimony, and they testified not only to his 
temperance in drinking, but to his cleanness of life and 
speech. It was a tribute to be proud of, and the testimony 
completely exonerated him from the loose and unfounded 
charge. 



249 



CHAPTER XV 

THE PRIVATE CITIZEN 

Trip to South America — Lectures in Principal Cities 
Followed by Exploration of the Brazilian Jungle — 
The ''River of Doubt" — Visits to England and Spain 
— The Barnes Libel Suit — Outbreak of the Great 
War — The Campaign of 1916 — He Declines Another 
Nomination. 

Those who expected Theodore Roosevelt to be down- 
cast over the result of the election of 1912 little knew the 
man. He believed that he had been in the right, that his 
candidacy had been fully justified, and he accepted the 
result mth perfect equanimity. He was always a good 
loser, and resumed his literary labors as a private citizen 
without undue regrets. 

In the summer of 1913, Colonel Roosevelt was in\ited 
to go to Argentina and deliver lectures on economic prob- 
lems. He accepted the invitation, and then decided that, 
while he was about it, he would seize the opportunity to 
go into the interior of South America for exploration and 
hunting. He sailed on October 4, 1913. 

After filling his lecture engagements he plunged into 
the unknown primeval forests of Brazil, hunting, explor- 
ing, scientifically probing, enduring dreadful hardships, 
and coming several times within an ace of losing his life. 

He nearly starved to death. He contracted a fever 
which possibly undermined his constitution. Some doc- 
tors have said so. But he gained the glory of putting a 

250 



THE PRIVATE CITIZEN 

new river upon the map, the Rio da Duvia, ' ' The River of 
Doubt. ' ' The Government of Brazil officially, after inves- 
tigation had proved the explorer's claims, recognized the 
achievement, and further to honor a man greatly 
respected in Pan-American countries, renamed the river 
*'Rio Teodoro." 

During the South American trip the former President 
was given ovations in Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, and 
other cities where he made addresses. 

Returning to the United States late in May, 1914, he 
sailed almost immediately for England and paid a visit 
to Spain. From this trip he returned late in June, a few 
weeks before the outbreak of the Great War. 

Colonel Roosevelt was a sick man when he returned 
to New York from South America. Fever was burning 
him and sores acquired in the jungle marked his body. 
It was a fairly long time, for him, before he could resume 
his usual aggressive activities. 

The Barnes Libel Suit 

In April of 1915, however, when William Barnes of 
Albany, then the so-called boss of the Republican party of 
the State, essayed to destroy Colonel Roosevelt's prestige 
by a libel suit, alleging that the Colonel had called him a 
corrupt boss, he was fit and ready for one of the greatest 
fights in his career, for fight it was, though staged in the 
dignified precincts of the Supreme Court of the State. 

It stands, and will stand, as one of the great cases at 
law concerning libel. Colonel Roosevelt's chief counsel 
was the late John R. Bowers, no courtroom orator, but 
one of the shrewdest planners within the strategy of the 
law that ever bowed before the bench. 

Mr. Barnes' chief counsel was the late William M. 
Ivins, a true orator, though scarcely less skillful than 

251 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Mr. Bowers at legal strategy. But Mr. Ivins was hope- 
lessly handicapped in that he had no Colonel Roosevelt 
for a chief witness. 

From the moment the trial began until it ended with a 
complete victory for him and a virtual ruling by the jury 
(since that was the issue presented) in favor of Colonel 
Roosevelt's opinion of Mr. Barnes, the Colonel dominated 
the courtroom. He dominated it and electrified it. 

His intensely magnetic and interest-compelling quali- 
ties were so strongly provoked during the six days and a 
half that he was under cross-examination by Mr. Ivins 
that even the judge on the bench found himself laughing 
aloud or half applauding. 

At times the courtroom broke into a storm of cheering 
when Colonel Roosevelt was able to refute by his own 
extraordinary memory or out of an immensely competent 
filing-case of letters and documents (he seemed to have 
preserved everything in the way of correspondence 
received and copies of correspondence sent), statements 
made against his honor, his sincerity, his good faith, and 
his devotion to democracy. 

On the witness stand he poured out of his active brain, 
words that filled a dozen columns of every big newspaper 
in the country for days on end. At the conclusion of the 
trial, the jury stood first 11 to 1 for Roosevelt, the one 
being Edward Burns, a Democrat. When the jury was 
sent back to ponder, the one came around and the verdict 
was solidly for Roosevelt. 

Meeting With Chancellor Day 

"It is too bad," says a chronicler of the period, "that 
no dictaphone was installed one night during the Barnes 
libel trial session, when Colonel Roosevelt was a guest at 

252 



THE PRIVATE CITIZEN 

the home of Chancellor Day of Syracuse University, with 
whom in earlier years he had had more than one contro- 
versy, Dr. Day being the stanch friend and defender of 
the late John D. Archbold, whom the Colonel had once 
had occasion to put in the Ananias Club. 

' ' Their meeting was a little formal for three minutes, 
at the end of w^hich the Colonel found out that the Chan- 
cellor too had once lived in the still wild West. From 
then till past midnight they sat close together, roaring 
and chuckling and slapping one another on the knee as 
they matched good frontier stories. The rest of the com- 
pany listened in a kind of awed delight. ' ' 
The Colonel and a Boy 

During that same visit of the Colonel to Syracuse he 
kept up his horseback exercise, riding about the residence 
streets on a mount which a local admirer had loaned. One 
afternoon a prominent Syracusan looked up from his 
newspaper on the front porch and called to his wife 
upstairs: "There goes Theodore Koosevelt on horse- 
back." 

At the moment the six-year-old son of the house was 
in the bathtub and in nothing else. He heard his father, 
rushed scampering and pattering downstairs, out the 
front door, and right down the walk to the middle of the 
street, hoping for a glimpse of his great idol. That night 
at a reception the father told the Colonel of it. 

''By George — by George!" — and the chuckle. ''You 
bring that boy to me — I want to see him!" He was 
brought, duly clad, and was mounted for half an hour 
on the Roosevelt knee, and told stories about Injuns and 
lions and giraffes and grizzlies and "my grandchildren"; 
when taken home, in a trance state, and measured, was 
found, it is solemnly asserted, to have grown an inch ! 

253 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

The Campaign of 1916 

As the Republican National Convention of 1916 
approached, it was obvdous that Colonel Roosevelt desired 
the nomination for the Presidency, not only from his own 
newly created party, the Progressives, but if he could get 
it, from the old-line Republican organization. There is 
no doubt also, that throughout the country there was a 
strong popular sentiment for the Colonel. People were 
weary of partisan strife. They would no doubt have 
supported Colonel Roosevelt in far larger numbers than 
his opponents estimated. 

But the sentiment of the regular Republican leaders 
was unalterably opposed to his selection. They could not 
forget 1912. They went to Chicago with delegations 
described as ''handpicked," delegations that nothing 
could sway or stampede from a coldly resolved upon 
course. At the same time the Progressive party met in 
Chicago with one candidate — Roosevelt, though it delayed 
naming him until it could see what the Republicans would 
do. They were eventful, thrilling days, though the out- 
come was another disappointment for the man from 
Oyster Bay. 

The Republicans named Charles E. Hughes, taking 
him from the bench of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, after it had declined to listen to Colonel Roose- 
velt's suggestion to nominate either Senator Henry Cabot 
Lodge or General Leonard Wood. At Colonel Roose- 
velt's own insistence, w^hich virtually dissolved the Pro- 
gressive party then and there, his name was eliminated 
by them and they named a candidate for Vice-President 
only. 

The result, of course, is well-known recent history. 
Mr. Wilson again being successful, though by the narrow- 

254 



THE PRIVATE CITIZEN 

est margin and largely on the score of his persistent 
promise to keep the country out of the European war that 
had been raging for two years. 

Opposed by Pacifists 

Perhaps a certain knowledge of how Colonel Roose- 
velt would conduct himself and his country, were he to be 
elected, arrayed against him all of the pacifists, the timid, 
the non-understanding, that feared the mere mention of 
American participation. Except for a few weeks at the 
outset of the great conflict, when he held himself in check 
because of the President's pronouncement for perfect 
neutrality, he was never at a loss as to the real meaning 
of the conflict, as to the brutal ambition of the Central 
Powers, as to the peril not only to Europe but to America 
herself if the Germans should win. 

He arose in all of the energy and might of his intellect 
and called upon America to awake to a realization of her 
peril. He burned with anger at the injustice of the inva- 
sion of Belgium, at the enormities practiced there and in 
France or wherever the German foot trod. He spoke in 
blasting anger against the U-boat warfare that destroyed 
American ships and lives as nonchalantly as it destroyed 
the ships and the lives of the then belligerent Powers. 
He had no patience with President Wilson's slow-going, 
tolerant attitude toward the war. 

In May, 1915, Colonel Roosevelt was thrown from his 
horse while riding near his Oyster Bay home and suffered 
a broken rib; and he disclosed late in 1917, as already 
stated, that while boxing in the White House in 1905 
he received a blow which had destroyed the sight of one 
of his eyes. 

During the trouble on the Mexican border in 1915 
Colonel Roosevelt was a critic of President Wilson's Mex- 

255 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

ican policy, and from the beginning of the European War 
in 1914 he urged that this country join the conflict on 
the side of the Allies. AVhen, in April, 1917, the United 
States did declare war on Germany, Colonel Roosevelt 
offered himself and a division of troops to be recruited 
from 285,000 volunteers for active service in France. 
This offer was refused by the War Department, and Col- 
onel Roosevelt did not engage personally in war work, 
except in a civilian capacity, although his four sons, Theo- 
dore, Jr., Kermit, Archibald, and Quentin, and Dr. Rich- 
ard Derby, the husband of his daughter Ethel, all volun- 
teered for active service and were assigned to duty in 
Europe. 

In the New York gubernatorial campaign of 1918 
Colonel Roosevelt followed a neutral course and backed 
the organization candidate for Governor. 

Leader of Public Opinion 
Recurrent illnesses vexed him in the last years of his 
life, all signif}dng the breaking down of a wonderful con- 
stitution and of a body that had lived— what shall one 
say?— a century, no doubt, of the life of ordinary men. 
But to the day of his death he remained the leader of a 
tremendous section of the American people— of all, 
indeed, who maintained hard-headed views about the 
proper terms of peace as they maintained hard-headed 
views about the way the war should be waged, and as to 
when America should have entered the conflict. 

Upon this tremendous mass of public opinion Theo- 
dore Roosevelt never lost his grip. He was the leader, 
and so he remained till the breath was out of his body. 
His courage of mind and heart was never better displayed 
than when men who had been his own friends rebuked 

256 








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THE PRIVATE CITIZEN 

him for assailing the President's courses, which to Colo- 
nel Roosevelt seemed to lack the force, decision, and vis- 
ion necessary in the leader of the whole people. Though 
the criticism touched him, he never flinched from what he 
considered his duty to America. When he hit, he hit 
very hard, and Theodore Roosevelt the private citizen 
\rielded an influence greater than that of any other indi- 
\ddual in American history. 

Views on Various Topics 

Following are some quotations from addresses by 
Colonel Roosevelt, which show his versatility and his 
views on many subjects : 

From Sorbonne, Paris, lecture, April 23, 1910 : 

''The greatest of all curses is the curse of sterility and 
the severest of all condemnations should be visited upon 
the willful sterile. The first essential in any civilization 
is that the man and the woman shall be father and 
mother of healthy children, so that the race shall increase 
and not decrease. 

''It is not the critic that counts; not the man who 
points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the 
doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit 
belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose 
face is marred by dust and sweat and blood ; who strives 
valiantly, who errs, and comes short again and again, 
because there is no effort without error and shortcoming ; 
but who does actually strive to do the deeds. Shame on 
the man of cultivated taste who permits refinement to 
develop in a fastidiousness that unfits him for doing the 
rough work of a workaday world. ' ' 

257 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

From address at Detroit, Mich., May 18, 1916 : 

*'The pacifists of today, the peace-at-any-price men, 
are the spiritual and moral heirs of the men who 
denounced and opposed Washington; of the men who 
denounced and voted against Abraham Lincoln. 

"The working man, like the farmer and the business 
man, must be a patriot first or he is unfit to live in 
America; and the first duty of all patriots is to see that 
we are able to prevent alien conquerors from dictating 
our home policies. 

"I believe in a thoroughly efficient navy, the second 
in size in the world. 

**No nation vnW ever attack a unified and prepared 
America.'* 



From a statement as President on November 8, 1904 : 
"I am deeply sensible of the honor done me by the 
American people in thus expressing their confidence in 
what I have done and have tried to do. I appreciate to 
the full the solemn responsibility this confidence imposes 
upon me, and I shall do all that in my power lies not to 
forfeit it." 



From speech delivered at Auditorium, Chicago, Sep- 
tember 3, 1903 : 

''There is a homely old adage which runs: 'Speak 
softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.' If the 
American nation will speak softly, and yet build and 
keep at a pitch of the highest training a thoroughly effi- 
cient navy, the Monroe doctrine vriW go far." 



THE PRIVATE CITIZEN 

From address at Logansport, Ind., September 24, 
1902: 

**It is the merest truism to say that in the modern 
world industrialism is the great factor in the growth of 
nations. Material prosperity is the foundation upon 
which a very mighty national structure must be built. Of 
course there must be more than this. There must be a 
highly moral purpose, a hfe of the spirit which finds its 
expression in many different ways ; but unless material 
prosperity exists also there is scant room in which to 
develop the higher life." 

From lecture on "The World Movement" at the Uni- 
versity of Berlin, May 12, 1910: 

''It is no impossible dream to build up a civilization 
in which morality, ethical development, and a true feeling 
of brotherhood shall all alike be divorced from false senti- 
mentality, and from the rancorous and evil passions 
which, curiously enough, so often accompany professions 
of sentimental attachment to the rights of man." 

"This world movement of civilization which is now 
felt throbbing in every corner of the globe, should bind 
the nations of the world together while yet leaving unim- 
paired that love of country in the individual citizen which 
in the present stage of the world's progress is essential 
to the world's w^ell being." 

"Unjust war is to be abhorred; but woe to the nation 
that does not make ready to hold its own in time of need 
against all who would harm it; and woe thrice to the 
nation in which the average man loses the fighting edge, 
loses the power to serve as a soldier if the day of need 
should arise." 

259 



LIFE OP THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
Famous Epigrams Uttered by Roosevelt 

Theodore Koosevelt was a great maker of epigrams. 
The short and pithy phrases of his coinage now are part 
of the language of the country. It will be long before 
anyone who sees or hears the words "Bully!" and "Dee- 
lighted!" or the phrase, "the strenuous life," will not 
think at once of Colonel Roosevelt. 

Some of the striking expressions of Colonel Roose- 
velt's making, or of such pointed use by him that, 
although he did not originate them, they always will be 
associated with him instead of the author, follow : 

"Speak softly, hut carry a Big Stick." This was his 
early definition of his political creed. And for years 
thereafter no cartoon of the Colonel was considered com- 
plete unless it contained the artist's conception of the 
Big Stick. 

"My hat is in the ring/' was the way he announced 
he was a candidate for President. 

"My spear Jc7ioivs no brother," was a quotation that 
he used so effectively that it generally is associated with 
him. 

"Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead," was the Roosevelt 
answer when the Moorish bandit Raisuli captured and 
held for ransom Perdicaris, an American citizen. 

"I have teeth and I can use them." So said Roose- 
velt when he was arguing ^vith General Miles over the 
case of Rear Admiral Schley. 

"The short and ugly word," became a popular phrase 
throughout the country just as soon as Roosevelt used it 
in his verbal brush with the late E. H, Harriman. 

"Malefactors of great wealth," was a phrase made 
famous by Roosevelt. 

260 



THE PRIVATE CITIZEN 

''Damn the law! BuUd the canal!" That is what 
Eoosevelt is reported to have said when his advisors 
started to tell him the legal obstacles in the way of link- 
ing the Atlantic and the Pacific at Panama. 

"1 am for the square deal," was one of the expres- 
sions in an early speech that gave the country a popular 
catchword. 

"The police hoard does not make nor repeal laws. It 
enforces them." So said Roosevelt when he was Police 
Commissioner of New York City. And those were \videly 
quoted words at the time. 

''IVe stand at Armageddon and we battle for the 
Lord." When Roosevelt used that phrase to describe 
the political fight he and his followers made in the 
so-called Bull Moose campaign there was great business 
of looking up Armageddon, which was found in the Bible. 

"I feel like a Bull Moose," was an expression that 
gave that name to the Progressive wing of the Republican 
party. 

''Better faithful than famous," was the aphorism he 
evolved for himself when he entered politics. 

"I took the Canal Zone and let Congress debate," was 
another widely quoted sentence. 

"Never strike soft. If you must hit a man, put him to 
sleep." That was a sentiment frequently expressed by 
Roosevelt in his latter-day speeches. 

"If you ever print anything without my permission, 
I shall deny it," he said when newly inaugurated as Gov- 
ernor to newspaper reporters. And they remembered it. 

"Weasel words," was the phrase he applied to words 
of President Wilson. 

"Mollycoddles!" "Ananias!" "Traitor!" "Pussy- 
footer!" "Cravens and Weaklings!" "Muckrakers!" 

261 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

were among the superlatives that Colonel Roosevelt put 
with verbs and names in public attacks on those ^\'ith 
whom he was displeased. 

**I do not number party loyalty among my command- 
ments." This was one of his most famous expressions, 
made when he declared war on political bosses. 

"Someone asked me why I did not get an agreement 
with Colombia," he said on another occasion. "They 
might just as well ask me ivhy I do not nail cranberry 
jelly to the wall." 



262 



CHAPTER XVI 
APOSTLE OF PREPAREDNESS 

Twenty Years of Warning to the United States — He 
Practiced What He Preached — Urged Universal 
Training in 1914 — Roused the A^nerican Spirit — 
Offers of Personal Service Rejected — Statement by 
Roosevelt and Taft — The Colonel's Attitude on the 
Great War. 

Theodore Roosevelt preached the gospel of prepared- 
ness to the American people for more than twenty years. 
Even when the effect was indeed little more than that of 
*'a voice crying in the wilderness," he urged the nation 
to prepare for eventualities that all human history 
pointed to as inevitable. That his advice and urgent 
warnings were received with apathy by successive Con- 
gresses that refused to take them seriously was no fault 
of his. He did his duty as he saw it, and carried into 
practice, so far as he could, the principles of prepared- 
ness which he preached, whenever official opportunity was 
given him to do so. 

Within that period of twenty years, two foreign wars 
were thrust upon the United States— and both found the 
nation unprepared in a military sense. Only the Navy- 
was ready when the war with Spain came in 1898 — and 
its preparedness is admitted to have been due to the 
patriotic work of Theodore Roosevelt, then in the Navy 
Department as Assistant Secretary. Sensing the coming 
conflict, he had insisted on naval preparation, and the 

263 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

gunnery practice for which he had almost begged ammu- 
nition from Congress bore fruit in the battles of Manila 
Bay and Santiago. It was preparedness of a kind that 
saved American lives. 

May it not then be justifiably suggested in the light of 
what has happened since, that the lives of many Ameri- 
cans — and many Europeans too — might have been saved 
in the years just gone, had the nation followed the urgent 
ad\dce of Theodore Roosevelt and put itself in a position 
to protest against the breach of treaties and the atrocities 
of militarism in Europe — \sdth a strong right arm ready 
to back up its protests and enforce respect for them? 

If such protests as we did make were disregarded, 
why was it? Because the autocratic arch-enemies of 
human democracy knew that we were in no position to 
enforce them, and believed we could not do so. Hence the 
slaughter and the suffering and the terrific cost of a 
prolonged war, 

^^^len Theodore Roosevelt succeeded to the Presi- 
dency on the death of McKinley, those who were alarmed 
about what he might do also suggested that with his com- 
bative propensities he was likely to involve the country in 
war. Yet there never has been an administration, as aft- 
erwards appeared, when we were more perfectly at peace 
with all the world, nor were our foreign relations ever in 
danger of producing hostilities. But this was not due in 
the least to the adoption of a timid or yielding foreign 
policy; on the contrary, it was owdng to the firmness of 
the President in all foreign questions and the knowledge 
which other nations soon acquired that President Roose- 
velt was a man who never threatened unless he meant to 
carry out the threat, the result being that he was not 
obliged to threaten at all. 

264 



I 



APOSTLE OF PREPAREDNESS 
Urged Preparedness in 1914 

The European war came, and there were times when 
Colonel Roosevelt assailed the Wilson administration bit- 
terly, when he called for proper preparation against the 
looming peril, when he called for universal military serv- 
ice and a great Navy, when he demanded that we do some- 
thing more than pretend a neutrality that more than nine- 
tenths of the country abominated. 

He was busy with the trial at Syracuse the day the 
Lusitania was sunk, on May 7, 1915, and that night he 
dictated a statement that rang through America as to 
what America's plain duty had become. He would have 
sent Von Bernstorff out of the country, seized the German 
merchant marine, and got ready for the stern business 
of protecting American honor. 

All of these things eventuated, but it can never be 
forgotten that Colonel Roosevelt sensed thus early the 
morality and the practicality of their immediate opera- 
tion. 

He Denounced Germany 

From the very outset of the European war Colonel 
Roosevelt's denunciations of Germany's militaristic pol- 
icy began. German newspapers, remembering his eulo- 
gies of the Kaiser, bitterly attacked him. With renewed 
energy, day in and day out, in speeches, editorials and 
interviews, he pleaded for ''preparedness" on the part 
of the United States, flayed the pacifists and excoriated 
the sentiments of those who sang ''I Didn't Raise My Boy 
to Be a Soldier." 

In December, 1915, he wrote to Progressive leaders in 
Oregon, again saying that he would not again be a can- 

265 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

didate for the presidency. ' ' Perhaps the public is a little 
tired of me," he added. 

Nevertheless, when the Progressives convened in 
June, 1916, eighteen months later, the mention of his 
name brought forth cheering which lasted for ninety- 
three consecutive minutes. He dechned to accept the 
nomination. An effort had been made to nominate him 
at the Republican national convention, and although he 
withheld his consent to this, his refusal to parley with the 
old wing of the party cast a gloom over Hughes' support- 
ers. After Hughes' nomination he gave him his indorse- 
ment, much to the disgust of the Progressives, who saw 
themselves left adrift without their idolized leader, but 
the damage had then been done to the hopes of both 
Republicans and Progressives. Again, as in 1911, Roose- 
velt's attitude, this time because of his aloofness, con- 
tributed largely to the election of Woodrow Wilson. 

Criticized the Administration 
From the beginning of the European war until the 
day when he was silenced by death. Colonel Roosevelt 
made America's concern in the struggle his constant 
theme. Beginning with his intense feeling over the sink- 
ing of the Lusitania, he insisted on the immediate 
entrance of the L^nited States into the war and criticized 
the administration with vitriolic fire until war was 
declared. 

To the end he maintained his dynamic denunciations 
of lack of military preparedness, calling daily for a larger 
army and navy, universal military training in time of 
peace and governmental ownership of munitions plants. 
He bitterly criticized the War Department, alleging its 

266 



APOSTLE OF PREPAREDNESS 

failure to provide sufficient equipment for American 
troops, and, only two weeks before the operation per- 
formed upon him in New York, went to Washington and 
delivered a sensational philippic before the National 
Press Club. 

Months before the United States entered the war he 
set about organizing a brigade, which he hoped he might 
be given permission to lead against Germany, recruiting 
it from his old-time associates in the Rough Riders, and 
from young officers, college men, engineers and athletes. 
It was one of his bitterest disappointments that the War 
Department could not see its way clear to permit the use 
of such an organization, and he relinquished the project 
only after a lengthy correspondence with Secretary 
Baker. 

Roused the American Spirit 

Colonel Roosevelt would have had the United States 
protest and take action at the very beginning in 1914, 
when Belgium was invaded, declared his friend. Senator 
Lodge, in his memorial address to Congress after the 
Colonel's death. **He would have had us go to war when 
the murders of the Lusitania were perpetrated. He tried 
to stir the soul and rouse the spirit of the American peo- 
ple, and despite every obstacle he did awaken them, so 
that when the hour came, in April, 1917, a large propor- 
tion of the American people were even then ready in 
spirit and in hope. 

''How telling his work has been was proved by the 
confession of his country's enemies, for when he died the 
only discordant note, the only harsh words, came from the 
German press. Germany knew whose voice it was that 
had more powerfully than any other called Americans to 
the battle in behalf of freedom and civilization. ' ' 

267 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Offers of Service Rejected 

When the United States at length entered the World 
War, Colonel Roosevelt did his best to go into the active 
ser\dce of his coutnry. He tried so earnestly indeed that 
there was a never-to-be-forgotten pathos in his endeavors 
— to see this strong, eager man balked at every turn of his 
enthusiastic patriotism by a hostile administration. 

His friends, and they were legion, wanted him to raise 
a division, not necessarily to be commanded by him. They 
were willing to endure all of the preliminary expense to 
train themselves. The groundwork was all laid. But the 
administration would have none of Colonel Roosevelt's 
participation. 

Again and again after his sons had gone to France to 
join General Pershing he referred to the war as "exclu- 
sive," but always he declared that the nation must con- 
duct the war to a victorious finish. He opposed indiffer- 
ence to haste in combating Germany, and any tendency 
to "let others do it." 

Because he was not permitted to go to Europe at the 
head of a body of soldiers. Colonel Roosevelt was denied 
the reward which his friend. Senator Lodge, declared he 
would have ranked above all others, the great prize of 
death in battle. 

"But he was a patriot in every fibre of his being, and 
personal disappointment in no manner slackened or 
cooled his zeal. Everything that he could do to forward 
the war, to quicken preparation, to stimulate patriotism, 
to urge on efficient action, was done. Day and night, in 
season and out of season, he never ceased his labors." 

In such war work Colonel Roosevelt was indeed very 
active, speaking with his full power in support of the 
Liberty Loans, in arraignment of sedition and pacifism, 

268 



APOSTLE OF PREPAREDNESS 

and in urging liberal contributions for the Red Cross. 
He gave largely out of bis own means, and not long 
before bis death he turned his Nobel Peace Prize cash, 
which had grown considerably from its original $40,000, 
over to the seven-branched War Work Service of the 
United States. 

Roosevelt and Taft Ask Fair Play 

In view of President Wilson's public demand in the 
fall of 1918 for the election of a Democratic Congress, ex- 
President Roosevelt and Taft in New York made public 
the following joint statement through the Republican na- 
tional committee ; 

We approach this subject as Americans and only as Amer- 
icans. When this war broke out we would have welcomed action 
by the President which would have eliminated all questions of 
party politics. It would have enabled us all to stand behind him 
to the end without regard to anything except national considera- 
tions. Instead of this, partisan lines have been strictly drawn 
from the first, and now the President announces that only Demo- 
crats can be intrusted with future power, and only those Demo- 
crats who do his will. Because of this reflection on other 
patriotic Americans we appeal for fair play. 

The next Congress will serve from March 4, 1919, to March 
4, 1921. In that period— 

First — The war must be fought to unconditional success 
unless this is achieved before. 

Second — The terms of world peace must be settled. 

Third — The Democratic administration, after expending bil- 
lions of treasure and exercising more absolute power than any 
administration in our history, must give an account of its stew- 
ardship. 

Fourth — The change from war conditions to peace must be 
brought about with the least disturbance and the work of recon- 
struction must be broadly begun. 

A Republican Congress will be much better qualified than 
one controlled by Democrats to aid the country in adopting the 
measures needed for these four great tasks, and for the follow- 
ing reasons : 

269 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

First — Even as a minority party the Republicans made the 
winning of the war possible by passing the original draft bill. 
Without this we could not have trained and landed the two mil- 
lions of men now in France. As a minority party the Republicans 
forced upon a reluctant President and Secretary of War, after 
an injurious delay of four months, the amended draft act with- 
out which we could not have put two more millions at the front 
by next July. The Speaker, the leader and the chairman of the 
military committee of the Democratic House opposed the original 
draft with all the vigor possible. It was saved, and so our 
country's cause was saved by the Republican minority. 

Second — The new Senate must approve, by two-thirds vote, 
the terms of peace. Those terms should be settled not by one 
man only. It is one-man control we are fighting in this war to 
suppress. If the peace treaty is to be useful in the future, it 
must be approved by the great body of the American people. 
The President has indicated a willingness to make a peace by 
negotiation. He has not demanded, as he might have done in 
three lines, that which the American people demand — an uncon- 
ditional surrender. His exchange of notes with Germany has 
caused a deep concern among our people lest he may, by his 
parleying with her, concede her a peace around a council table 
instead of a sentence from a court. The fourteen points which 
the President and Germany assume that they have already agreed 
upon are so general and vague that such a peace would be no 
treaty at all, but only a protocol to an interminable discussion. 
The President is without final power to bind the United States to 
those fourteen points, although his language does not suggest it. 

Still less has he the power to bind our noble allies. We do 
not know that these points include all that our allies may justly 
demand, or do not concede something they ma}" justly withhold. 
For what they have done for us we owe our allies the highest 
good faith. It is of capital importance, therefore, that we should 
now elect a Senate which shall be independent to interpret and 
enforce the will of the American people in the matter of this 
world peace and not merely submit to the uncontrolled will of 
Mr. Wilson. 

Nor can the attitude of the House of Representatives be 
ignored in this peace. Every affirmative obligation binding the 
United States in that treaty must be performed by the House as 
part of the Congress. The present Democratic majority in the 
House has been subser\'ient to the will of the President in every 

270 



APOSTLE OF PREPAREDNESS 














Part of the original joint statement, in the Colonel's own handwriting, issued 
by Roosevelt and Taft in their reunion at the Union League Club in New York 
just before the congressional election, 1918. The upper section is in Roosevelt's 
handwriting, the lower in Taft's. Roosevelt generously put Taft's name first 
in the introduction; note how Taft courteously amended it so that Roosevelt, tha 
earlier President, who made Taft his successor, came first as it was given to th« 
public. 

271 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

respect except when critical issues in the conduct of the war 
have been involved. The President has not hesitated publicly to 
discipline those of his party who have disagreed with him and 
the lesson has had its effect. A new Democratic Confess, with 
its old leaders thus chastened, will offer no opposition to his 
will. They will not be consulted in the future more than in the 
past. In a Democratic Congress the American people will not 
have the service of an independent, courageous, co-ordinate 
branch of the government to moderate his uncontrolled will. It 
is not safe to intrust to one man such unlimited power. It is not 
in accord with the traditions of the republic. 

Third — The Republicans vot^ without objection billions to 
be expended by this administration. Six hundred and forty 
millions for aviation were given to the executive to build aero- 
planes without a single limitation as to the manner or method 
of its expenditure. A Senate committee has deplored the waste 
and failure in the use of that money. The debts which have been 
created by this war the people will be paying to the third and 
fourth generation. They have a right to know how these enor- 
mous sums have been expended. Only a Republican Congress 
will have the courage to exact a detailed and accurate story of 
that stewardship. 

Fourth — The work of reconstruction must not be done by 
one man, or finally formulated according to his academic theories 
and ideals. The President was not elected when such issues 
were before the people. His mandate of power was not given in 
the light of the momentous questions which will soon force them- 
selves for solution. He was elected as a peace President and 
because he had kept us out of war. The American people should 
therefore place in the branch of the government charged consti- 
tutionally with adopting policies of reconstruction a Congress 
which will not register the will of one man, but, fresh from the 
people, will enact the will of the people. 

We earnestly deprecate extending the unified uncontrolled 
leadership of a commander-in-chief to the making of a perma- 
nent treaty of peace or to the framing of those measures of 
reconstruction which must seriously affect the happiness and 
prosperity of the American people for a century. We urge all 
Americans, who are Americans first, to vote for a Republican 
Congress. 

Theodore Roosevelt, 
William H. Taft. 

272 



APOSTLE OF PREPAREDNESS 

Attitude on the Great War 
In a speech at Carnegie Hall, New York, October 28, 
1918, two weeks before the armistice ended hostilities in 
the Great War, Colonel Roosevelt said: 

^'I beUeve in putting this war through to our last 
man and to our last dollar rather than to fail in beating 
Germany to her knees. That is the spirit of our wonder- 
ful fighting men that our soldiers at the front have. The 
world has never seen finer fighting men than our soldiers 
at the front. But let this people never forget that in the 
bitter weather of last winter we left our small army over- 
seas without a sufficient number of overcoats or shoes; 
we got uniforms from the British ; we got our cannon and 
our machine guns from the hard-pressed French, the 
tanks from the British and French ; we had practically no 
airplanes at the front until seventeen months after we 
went to war — in short, our governmental shortcomings 
were so lamentable that even now we can fight at all only 
because of the weapons our allies give us. 

**I hold that it was a foolish and evil thing to have 
failed to prepare during the two years and a half after 
the World AYar began, and a foolish thing and evil thing 
to have shown the hesitation and delay and incompetency 
displayed in making our strength effective, which we 
showed for over a year after we had finally helplessly 
drifted stern foremost into the war. I hold that it is 
upon efficiency and upon an absolute disregard of all 
political considerations that we must rely in speeding up 
the war. Let us try to mn it at once ; but let us set our- 
selves resolutely to mn it, no matter what the cost and no 
matter how long it takes. I hold that it is necessary 
clearly to face the dreadful blunders and worse than blun- 
ders that have been made, in order to avoid repeating 

273 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

them in the future. But I hold with even greater tenacity 
that it is our duty to treat these blunders, not in any way 
as an excuse for failure to do our duty, but as an addi- 
tional incentive to devoting every ounce of strength we 
have to winning the war. If we had prepared in advance, 
the war would have been over ninety days after we 
entered it. If the administration had used with moderate 
efficiency the results of the lavish generosity of Congress 
our armies and the Allied armies would have been doing 
long ago what they are doing now in October. I trust our 
people will keep well in mind, as a lesson concerning the 
mere money cost of unpreparedness, that the enormous 
sums we have had to raise by taxation and by borrowing 
are at the very least twice as great as if wo had begun 
to prepare in advance, without hurry and confusion and 
vdthout the attendant waste and extravagance and prof- 
iteering, and with the patriotic and businesslike refusal 
to consider politics or anything else except winning the 
war. 

Unconditional Surrender, but a Just Peace 
*'We should accept no peace not based on the uncon- 
ditional surrender of Germany and her vassal allies, Aus- 
tria and Turkey, and upon the freeing of the subject races 
of Austria and Turkey from the yoke of the Austrian, 
the Magyar, and the Turk. Therefore, it is inexcusable 
in us, and is a reflection upon our good faith, to have 
remained so long without declaring war on Turkey, for 
it is mere hypocrisy to talk of making the world safe for 
democracy so long as we are not at war \nth Turkey, and 
have not insisted upon putting the Turk out of Europe 
and freeing the Armenians and the Syrians of all creeds 
from his yoke, and gi^^ng Palestine to be made a Jewish 
state. 



APOSTLE OF PREPAREDNESS 

**I would not subject the German or the Magyar to 
the dominion of anyone else. But neither would I permit 
them to lord it over anyone else. The true way to put a 
stop to Germany's ability again to convulse the world 
by an effort to secure world dominion is to give, not 
autonomy, but freedom to all the nations that now cower 
under the tyranny of Germany and her allies, Belgium, 
of course, must be restored and amply indemnified, and 
all the gold that Germany has cannot repay Belgium for 
the frightful wrongs so wantonly committed against her 
by Germany during the last four years. France must 
receive back Alsace and Lorraine, and Germany must be 
forced to carry out her broken promise to the Danes of 
North Schleswig. All of Poland must be a separate com- 
monwealth, with a seafront on the Baltic; Finland, the 
Baltic provinces, Lithuania, and Ukrainia, must be made 
as absolutely independent of Germany as of Russia ; the 
Czecho-Slovaks and the Jugo-Slavs must be made into 
independent commonwealths; the Roumanians in East 
Hungary restored to Roumania; the Italians of South- 
western Austria joined to Italy ; the Greeks safeguarded 
in their rights ; Constantinople made a free city, and all 
other injustices remedied in so far as it is humanly pos- 
sible to do so. The German strangle-hold must be 
removed from Russia, and we should ourselves help Rus- 
sia so far as she will permit us to do so, and we cannot 
efficiently do so unless our government acts with infinitely 
greater wisdom, forethought, insight, and resolution than 
it has shown in its handling of the Siberian matters for 
the last six months. 

The Work of Reconstruction 

''Then, when the end of the war is come and we have 
obtained the peace of complete \'ictory, a peace obtained 

275 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

by machine guns and not typewriters, we shall have to 
turn to the affairs of our own household and undertake 
the work of reconstruction with cool intelligence and reso- 
lution, with firm determination not to be misled by the 
visionaries and fanatics who, under the plea of helping 
the average man, would bring our whole civilization to 
ruin. ' ' 



In the fight for Americanism there must be no sagging 
back. 

— Roosevelt's Last Message. 



278 



CHAPTER XVII 

A FAMILY OF PATRIOTS 

Four Sons in Active Service — One Killed, Two Wounded, 
All Distinguished — Quentin's Grave Visited hy His 
Mother— War Records of the Roosevelts—The Colo- 
neVs Family — Ideal Family Life — Love of the Out- 
doors — Oyster Bay a Mecca for Distinguished 
Visitors. 

True American patriotism was inherent and heredi- 
tary in the Roosevelt family. In Theodore Roosevelt is 
found constant and practical expression. He lived and 
died the typical patriot of his country and his time. And 
his patriotism was transmitted in unstinted measure to 
his children. 

Though he was not permitted to engage in the World 
War himself, with the division of volunteers which he had 
taken steps to recruit among his admirers, he was repre- 
sented in the great conflict by his four sons — volunteers 
all — one of whom sealed his patriotism with his life, and 
by a son-in-law, Dr. Richard Derby, a Major in the Army 
Medical Corps. Two of his sons were wounded, all distin- 
guished themselves in service. 

His youngest son. Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt, was 
killed in France in an air battle on the western front, in 
July, 1918. His machine was shot down by a German 
aviator, experienced and skilled, with a record of thirty- 
two planes downed to his credit. Young Roosevelt, 
though skilled, was inexperienced, his adversary said 

277 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

after he and brother officers had buried and marked the 
grave of Quentin, The victor paid tribute to him in say- 
ing that he had fought courageously and gallantly. Colo- 
nel Roosevelt -wished that his son's body remain in the 
soil that he had fought to free. ''Let the tree lie where 
it falls," he said when asked if Quentin 's body would be 
brought home. 

In February, 1919, after the Colonel's death, Mrs. 
Theodore Roosevelt carried out the intention which she 
and her husband had formed, of visiting their son's grave 
in France. Landing at Brest, she was met and welcomed 
by officials of the French Government, who placed at her 
disposal every possible facility and convenience for car- 
rying out her sad mission. In the quietest and least osten- 
tatious manner possible, the sorrowing and widowed 
mother was escorted to the spot in the battle-torn terri- 
tory where lay the remains of her youngest son, a martyr 
in the cause of human liberty, interred by enemy hands 
in a grave that will be kept green for generations to come 
by the grateful tears of the French people, whom he 
crossed an ocean to aid. The heartfelt sympathies of 
the American people accompanied Mrs. Roosevelt on her 
sorrowful trip, and the deepest regrets that Quentin 's 
father was not spared to stand by her side over that 
lonely but glorious grave. The parent oak fell soon after 
the sturdy sapling, and both lie where they fell. 

Archie Wounded and Cited 

Two of Colonel Roosevelt's other sons, Archie and 
Theodore, Jr., were cited for bravery in action with the 
United States Army and Kermit distinguished himself 
while fighting with the British forces in Mesopotamia. 
At his own retjuest, when the United States got into the 
war, Kermit was transferred to our army. 

278 



A FAMILY OF PATRIOTS 

In the fighting before Toul in 1918, Archie was 
wounded. He so distinguished himself that General Per- 
shing personally recommended him for promotion to a 
captaincy, which he subsequently got, and he was also 
cited for gallantry in action. He was a Second Lieuten- 
ant when he first went into action. While leading his men 
he was hit by shrapnel that injured both a leg and an arm. 
He was taken to a Paris hospital, and while there learned 
that he had been awarded the French War Cross. When 
told of his son's gallant action and its recognition by two 
nations, the Colonel was ' klelighted. " 

'*! am proud of my boys," he said. 

Theodore, Jr., a Lieutenant-Colonel 

Theodore, Jr., was also wounded while he and his 
detachment were wiping out machine-gun nests near 
Plerigy, in the Soissons sector, in July, 1918. Shrapnel 
was imbedded in Major Roosevelt's knee, but he would 
not allow himself to be moved until the nests were cleaned 
out. He was taken to a hospital back of the lines and 
then transferred to a Paris hospital, where an operation 
was performed. He afterward was promoted to Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel and was cited for gallantry. His wife, one of 
the few who managed to get to their husbands fighting in 
France, reached him there. She was engaged in war 
work. During the same month, July, Quentin was killed. 

Kermit Cited by the British 

When America started preparing for the war, Kermit 
Roosevelt and his wife had just returned from Argentina, 
where he had gone to help establish a branch of the 
National City Bank. He immediately enlisted in the 
Officers' Training Camp at Plattsburg. While there he 
was offered a commission with the British forces. He 

279 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

accepted and later was cited in British dispatches. He 
had himself transferred to the American forces later, to 
** fight under his own flag." 

Archie Roosevelt abandoned his business in a carpet 
factory in Connecticut, where Theodore, Jr., had started 
his career years before, and also went to Plattsburg. 
Archie won a Second Lieutenancy. Both Archie and 
Theodore, Jr., were among the first to go to France. 
Theodore, Jr., was prospering in the oil well business 
when he abandoned it for his country's ser\dce. 

The Coloners Family. 

Mr. Roosevelt was twice married. His first wife was 
Alice Hathaway Lee, daughter of George Cabot Lee of 
Boston. She died February 14, 1884. On December 2, 
1886, he married in London Edith Kermit Carow, daugh- 
ter of Charles Carow, who was his boyhood friend. 

The only child of his first marriage was his daughter 
Alice, the clever and attractive girl who became the wife 
of Congressman Nicholas Longworth. The children by 
his second marriage were Ethel Roosevelt, who became 
the wife of Dr. Richard T. Derby; Theodore Roosevelt, 
Jr., Kermit, Archie, and Quentin. 

Ideal Family Life 

The warmth of the affection shown within the Roose- 
velt household was a notable part of the life at the home- 
stead. Sagamore Hill, near Oyster Bay, N. Y. 

When a Western visitor was at the hospital in New 
York just before Christmas, 1918, Captain Archie Roose- 
velt, who was wounded in France and invalided home, 
came in to bid the Colonel good-by — a slight, bo\-ish fig- 
ure, with the arm paralyzed by shrapnel still supported 
by its metal brace. They talked a few minutes about a 

280 



A FAMILY OF PATRIOTS 

trip they planned to harpoon tarpon in Southern waters 
in March, the Colonel explaining with enthusiasm that 
harpooning was particularly adapted to such cripples 
because it could be done with one arm. And then the 
Captain crossed the room and kissed his father good-by. 

It was the same with all the members of the family. 
When his children saw their father after a separation 
they would pat him on the shoulder as they passed him in 
the room, and he would detain them a moment to hold 
their hands. 

'*I must talk that over with Edith (Mrs. Roosevelt) 
and Alice" (his daughter), was his frequent reply when 
some personal matter was up for his consideration. 
"They have such good judgment." 

Family All Outdoor Folk 

The whole family was devoted to outdoor life. During 
the Colonel's terms as President, the White House stables 
contained excellent riding horses. There was a horse or 
pony for every member of the family. There were two 
mounts for the President, one being Eusty, a bay heavy- 
weight hunter on which the President frequently jumped 
fences in the country to remind him of the time when he 
once rode to hounds on Long Island. 

Because of the President's example there was prob- 
ably more good healthful exercise taken in Washington 
during his administration than has been known there 
before or since. Americans are not generally credited 
vdth being anemic, but the official and social duties of the 
capital never before were so crowded in between sets of 
tennis, riding and walking expeditions. 

His contests President Roosevelt held not only with 
his boys and other members of his family, but with Cabi- 
net officers and foreign diplomats. Capitals of Europe 

281 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

were sometimes highly entertained by accounts of their 
representatives following the President, who had in\dted 
them for afternoon walks, across fences, ditches, and 
through mud ankle deep. Pouring rain never prevented 
the President from taking his walks with members of the 
foreign embassies, and he was always delighted with 
credit given him for inaugurating the strenuous life in 
Washington. And the outdoor life lived in Washington 
was but a repetition of that enjoyed at Sagamore Hill, 
typical haven of domestic bliss and always a scene of 
rational pleasures. Whether the Colonel was in or out 
of office, his delightful country home was always his 
favorite abode. 

Mecca of Distinguished Men 

Distinguished guests were nearly always to be found 
at the Roosevelt table at Sagamore Hill. Jacob Riis 
tells of his going there during the Colonel's Presidency, 
to complain that a rule had been adopted by the War 
Department, discontinuing the custom of having the 
names of private soldiers who were killed in the Philip- 
pines cabled home. The reports merely dismissed the 
matter by saying that so many unnamed privates had 
fallen. Mr. Riis' chance to speak of the matter did not 
come until he had luncheon. Adjutant-General Corbin 
was present, and the President at once turned to him and 
asked, ''General, is there such a rule?" 

"Yes, Mr. President," he answered. 

''^Vhy?" 

**The department adopted it, I believe, from motives 
of economy. ' ' 

''General, can you telegraph from here to the Philip- 
pines?" 

282 



A FAMILY OF PATRIOTS 

General Corbin thought that if the order were to be 
repealed, it could better be done from Washington. But 
the President said: 

' ' No ! No ! We \^ill not wait. The mothers who gave 
the best they had to the country should not be breaking 
their hearts, that the Government may save twenty-five 
or fifty dollars. Save the money somewhere else." 

Forthwith from the table at Sagamore Hill went the 
new ruling that the names of the privates as well as those 
of the officers falling in the Philippines, should be sent 
home by cable. 

An English guest of world-wide experience pro- 
nounced the table-talk at Oyster Bay as brilliant as any 
he ever had heard. The variety of the President's topics, 
his grasp of subjects, his out-of-the-way knowledge, and 
his marvelous memory reminded him of the conversation 
of Gladstone. A British army officer, with a long experi- 
ence in India, declared, after his visit, that President 
Roosevelt knew more than he did about the history and 
the administration of the Indian government. 

An Ambassador, lunching at Oyster Bay, made some 
remark about a buffalo head on the wall. This led Colonel 
Roosevelt to express his regret that we in this country 
should have exterminated the American bison in a dozen 
years, where Europe was a thousand years in killing off 
the auroch. Then he talked of the migration of the fauna 
of South America across the isthmus and of the fauna 
of Asia across Behring Strait, with the resultant inter- 
mingling of the species in North America. 

The Ambassador was amazed at the extent of the 
President's information on such subjects, but those who 
knew how truly great a naturalist he was had ceased to 
be surprised at any outcropping from his marvelous fund 
of special knowledge. 

283 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Until the last days of the Colonel's life, his home 
continued to be a Mecca for distinguished men and women 
of all nationalities and opinions. There they found a 
private forum for the free expression of all beliefs, but 
all who came left with the same impression stamped upon 
their memories — that it was the home of a live, practical 
American patriotism, the abode of a family of patriots. 




3an Francisco Chronicle, January 7, 1919. 



284 



CHAPTER XVIII 
THE YOUNG MAN'S HKRO 

Theodore Roosevelt the Idol of American Youth — His 
Strong, Lovable Character Appealed to Its Imagina- 
tion — One Secret of His Power a^ a Citizen — A Peren- 
nial Boy — Mourned by the Boys of America — The 
Colonel Among Children — How He Raised His Sons. 

No man ever lived who enjoyed in so remarkable a 
degree as Theodore Roosevelt the love and respect of 
Young America. No other citizen of the world was ever 
so deeply enshrined in the hearts of the boys and girls of 
his own country, or was so cheerfully accepted by them 
as their ideal and exemplar. 

To the young men of the country he was indeed a hero. 
He appealed to their imagination, and filled it with a sat- 
isfaction that knew no flaw. The wonderful combination 
in his personality of a King Arthur, a Chevalier Bayard, 
and a Buffalo Bill, with the added qualities of great 
statesmanship and intense patriotism, made an appeal 
that was irresistible, so that for two generations the liv- 
ing ''Teddy" was the idol of the young. And the dead 
Roosevelt will remain their ideal for generations to come. 

The love and hero-worship of the young men of 
America was ever a source of tremendous strength to 
Roosevelt the statesman and Roosevelt the influential citi- 
zen. The public recognized it, the politicians felt its 
power, the parents knew its influence. There is an 
instinct or an intuition — call it what you please — in the 

285 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

personal judgments of the young that cannot be gainsaid. 
Good men, strong men, sincere men, lovable men, are 
intuitively recognized by the youthful mind, and are 
respected and trusted accordingly. They attract youth 
and gain its confidence, while men of a different character 
are repellent to it and arouse its suspicion. Theodore 
Roosevelt was always attractive to youth. He gained the 
affection of the young without effort, because of his 
abounding love for humanity, which found constant 
expression in his daily life. From his earliest days he 
was the teacher, guide, and counsellor of the young; and 
as his great career unfolded he gave to the boys and girls 
of America that service of usefulness which he lavished 
upon all his fellow-countrymen in such unstinted measure. 
In this he was but following in the footsteps of his father, 
the elder Theodore, whose work for the j^oung of New 
York City was one of the greatest achievements of his 
useful life. 

A Perennial Boy 
Colonel Roosevelt was a perennial boy. In some 
respects he never "grew up." His abounding vitality, 
his love of constant action — *' something doing all the 
time," — his enthusiasm in every cause he espoused, his 
quick perceptions and rapid decisions, his fondness for 
sports, his love of a "scrap," his sense of fair play, his 
keen interest in football, — all these characteristics were 
those of a regular American boy, and the boys of America 
recognized in him a kindred spirit, one of themselves. He 
was never happier than when he was "playing the boy," 
and he could be a boy in the company of staid Senators, 
dignified Ambassadors, and prim politicians, as well as 
with boxers and football players and wrestlers and cow- 
boys and children. 

286 



THE YOUNG MAN'S HERO 

When he died a great New York newspaper recognized 
the truth of his hold upon the boys when it said, under 
the heading of "Teddy": 

"Millions who have no spokesmen to make articulate 
their emotions, who lack words to express their grief, 
mourn Theodore Roosevelt surely quite as sincerely as 
those who fill papers with their tributes and draw up 
resolutions of regret. 

"These mute mourners are the boys of America. In 
their Pantheon, Theodore Roosevelt, hero of San Juan, 
mighty hunter, slayer of lion, bear, wolf, and panther, 
explorer, occupied a throne more exalted even than Frank 
Merriwell's and Nick Carter's, far above the history- 
embedded heroes of Gr, A. Henty. 

"He was the eternal boy. His were the boy's enthus- 
iasms and unlimited capacity for swift movement of body 
and brain. And the boys shall mourn the passing of this 
full-colored, \drile man long after grief has faded from 
older and colder hearts and minds, untouched by the eter- 
nal dawn." 

Why Boys Loved "Teddy" 

When Mr. Roosevelt was President, his great friend, 
Jacob A. Riis, who had accompanied him in earlier days 
on many a midnight expedition through the slums of New 
York City, seeking to do good, said of him : 

"Boys admire President Roosevelt because he himself 
'is a good deal of a boy.' Some men have claimed that 
Mr. Roosevelt never has matured; but this is saying no 
more than that he has not stopped grooving, that he is not 
yet imprisoned in the crust of age. To him the world is 
still young and unfinished. He has a boy's fresh faith 
that the things that ought to be done can be done. His 
eyes are on the future rather than on the past. 

287 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

''Young America never drew so near to any other 
public man as to Theodore Roosevelt. All the boys in the 
land feel that there is a kindred spirit in the White 
House. Every one of them knows ' Teddy ' and the ' Teddy 
bear' and the 'Teddy hat.' But it is doubtful if the 
President ever was called 'Teddy' when he was a boy. 
He used to be 'Teedy' in the family circle and at Harvard 
he was 'Ted,' while among the intimates of his manhood 
he is always called 'Theodore.' He is 'Teddy,' however, 
to millions of boys who delight in their comradeship vdih 
tlie President which this nickname implies. It does not 
mean that they are lacking in respect for him ; it simply 
means that they are not afraid of him, and that they feel 
they know him and he knows them." 

The Colonel Among Children 
The Colonel had a way with 5'oungsters. All too little 
to know how to admire him loved him on sight. The older 
ones did both. The stories about him with children here 
and there are innumerable. His animosity toward race 
suicide was no cold, abstract, sociological tenet. There 
was the little invalid in Portland, Oregon, carried to the 
curb on a stretcher to see him go by, when he was pass- 
ing through in 1903. He noticed her, stopped the car- 
riage, jumped out and kissed her. 

One day in February, 1911, when walking back to 
the office of The Outlook in New York after luncheon, the 
Colonel found a lost nine-year-old, newly arrived with 
his parents via Ellis Island, crying in the streets, and 
dried the child's eyes and took him to the East Twentj'- 
third street police station, where he turned him over to 
the matron, and then swapped old memories with the 
bluecoats behind the desk, one or two of whom had been 
on the force when he was Commissioner. 

288 



THE YOUNG MAN'S HERO 

There are countless stories of his own, the Roosevelt 
children, in and out of the White House and at Sagamore 
Hill, and latterly there were the photographs of him hold- 
ing the grandbabies. Of these stories, a favorite in its 
day was about his little boating and sleeping-out-in-blan- 
kets expedition to a remote sand beach on the Sound, his 
companions being Kermit, Archie and their cousin Philip. 
The date was August 9, 1902. 

The President and the three kids quietly stole off to 
the bay, eluding all eyes but Secretary Loeb's, and that 
was the evening when the Pacific cables rumpus broke 
like a bombshell, and telegrams and emissaries and mag- 
nates and reporters poured in vainly upon the Roosevelt 
home. Mr. Loeb could not say where the President was 
and seemed embarrassed by it. The four simple-lifers 
returned in the morning after a bully time, and the busi- 
ness of a President on vacation was resumed. Subse- 
quently such sleeping-out excursions were a feature of 
every summer. 

Then there was the autumn day in 1917 when the 
Colonel sat for two hours at the elbow of Justice Hoyt 
in Children's Court, New York, heard the cases, and acted 
as unofficial consulting Justice. Once, leaning over, he 
whispered to a youngster, "It's all right this time, sonny. 
You're all right. But remember, don't do it again, or 
he '11 send you away ! He '11 send you away ! ' ' And again, 
after hearing how some other juvenile malefactor of 
little wealth had made full restitution to the pushcart 
man or somebody, the Roosevelt fist thumped the arm 
of the chair, with "That's a fine boy! That kind make 
first-rate citizens!" 

Soon after the Roosevelts took up their residence at 
the White House a fawning society woman asked one of 

289 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the younger boys if be did not dislike tbe "common boys" 
be met at tbe public scbools. Tbe boy looked at her in 
wonderment for a moment and tben replied : 

''My papa says tbere are only tall boys and sbort boys 
and good boys and bad boys, and that's all the kind of 
boys there are." 

When the leader of the Rough Riders returned from 
the Spanish-American war he found all his children con- 
gregated near a pole from which floated a large flag 
of their o^^ti manufacture, inscribed: 

''To Colonel Roosevelt." 

He said that the tribute touched him more deeply than 
any of the pretentious demonstrations accorded him. 

Several years ago Judge Ben Lindsey of Denver 
asked Colonel Roosevelt to send his son Quentin out 
West. A few- months before his death the Colonel was 
talking to the Judge, and tears came into his eyes as he 
said: "Judge, you remember what you said about that 
boy? Well, he went west, he went west" (in France). 
Then he added: 

"It is pretty hard. His mother, of course, like all 
mothers, feels it, but by George — by George, it's all 
right; and I tell you. Judge, if this war lasts another 
year I won't have a son left. Not one! I tell you, they 
are bears; they are bears for a fight when there ought 
to be a fight. I am proud of them." 

Roosevelt's Kind of Eoy 

Mr. Roosevelt was fond of telling the boys what their 
country expects of them. He was a great friend and 
supporter of the Boy Scouts of America, who wore offi- 
cial mourning crepe on their arms for him after his death, 
and mourned him most sincerely. Here is what he once 
said about the American boy — and every boy should paste 
it in his hat : 

290 



THE YOUNG MAN'S HERO 

^'Wliat we have a right to expect of the American boy 
is that he shall turn out to be a good American man. Now 
the chances are that he won't be much of a man unless he 
is a good deal of a boy. He must not be a coward or a 
weakling, a bully, a shirk, or a prig. He must work hard 
and play hard. He must be clean-minded and clean-lived, 
and able to hold his own under all circumstances and 
against all comers. It is only on these conditions that he 
will grow into the kind of man of whom America can 
really be proud. In life, as in a football game, the prin- 
ciple to follow is to hit the line hard: don't foul and don't 
shirk, but hit the line hard. ' ' 

— Theodoee Roosevelt. 

There is a splendid platform of principles for a regu- 
lar boy. And no one who was not "a good deal of a boy" 
himself would have put so much sound sense in so 
few words. They ring true — and millions of American 
boys are trying to live up to ''Teddy's" standard. That 
was the kind of boy he was himself, and the kind of man 
he made himself. 

His Own Children 

Young America was also drawn to the former Presi- 
dent through his delight in his own children. He was 
prouder to be the father of a family of six than to be the 
head of the nation. His sons and daughters were born as 
follows : 

Alice Lee (named for her mother, the first Mrs. Roose- 
velt), born in New York City, February 12, 1884; married 
Nicholas Longworth of Cincinnati, at the White House, 
February 17, 1906. 

Theodore, Jr. (named for his father), born at Oyster 
Bay, September 13, 1887. 

291 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Kermit (this is the middle name of his mother), born 
at Oyster Bay, October 10, 1889. 

Ethel Carow (named for her mother's family), born 
at Oyster Bay, August 13, 1891. 

Archibald Bulloch (named for a paternal ancestor, the 
first Governor of the State of Georgia), born in Wash- 
ington, April 9, 1894 

Quentin (named for a maternal ancestor), born in 
Washington, November 19, 1897 ; died in action in France, 
July, 1918. 

''The chief ambition of Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt," said 
one of their closest friends, 'Svas not to rear a brilliant 
family, but to keep their children like other children, 
unspoiled by their father's distinction, and to bring them 
up simply and to fit them to be womanly women and 
manly men. They all had the same nurse, but their 
mother trusted no one to tuck them iu at night, and she 
herself attended to this duty even when there was a great 
reception or state dinner to be given. 

''The President wished his daughters as well as his 
sons to be brave and hardy. 'I must confess,' he said, 
'that when girls are small I like them to be tomboys.' Of 
his eldest child he once remarked: 'Alice is a girl who 
does not stay in the house and sit in a rocking-chair. She 
can walk as far as I can. She can ride, drive, and shoot ; 
although she doesn't care much for the shooting. I don't 
mind that; it is not necessary for health, but outdoor exer- 
cise is, and she has plenty of that.' 

"Coming to womanhood while her father was Presi- 
dent, Alice was obliged to pay the penalty of his fame. 
Her every step was published to the world and her name 
was made a favorite subject of gossip and rumor. It was 
a trying ordeal for a young woman, but it must be granted 

292 



THE YOUNG MAN'S HERO 

by all that she passed through this trial with a careless 
indifference, worthy of her father 's spirit of courage and 
independence. The German Emperor selected her to 
christen his yacht, when it was launched in an American 
shipyard, and she complied with the imperial request 
simply and modestly. After the launching she sent this 
message by cable : 

'His Majesty, the Emperor, 
'Berlin, Germany: 
'The Meteor has been successfully launched. I con- 
gratulate you, and I thank you for your courtesy to me, 
and I send my best wishes. 

'Alice Lee Roosevelt.^ 

"Some guardians of royal etiquette in Europe seemed 
to be a little shocked by the lack of formality, by the 
directness of that greeting from an American girl to an 
august sovereign. Doubtless the Kaiser liked this girlish 
frankness. He knew we had no court manners over here. 
Miss Roosevelt again became involved in court etiquette 
when she planned to attend the coronation of King 
Edward in London. The American Ambassador had 
invited her to join him on that occasion and she was as 
ready as any other girl to see so grand a pageant. When, 
however, a debate arose as to whether the daughter of 
the President should be received as a Princess, she and 
her father lost their patience, and the journey was aban- 
doned in disgust." 

The Colonel and His Sons 

In his relations with his four sons, Colonel Roosevelt 
was always more like a brother than a father. Once he 
made a little speech at a school near Washington, where 
his daughter, Ethel, was a pupil, and said : 

2n 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

''Life in the family circle is usually shaped predomi- 
nantly for good or evil by the mother, even more than 
by the father." 

So in his own family circle he ''took his place in the 
ranks" as an equal comrade of his sons. They used to 
play, read, tramp, and ride together. AVe even heard of 
pillow-fights between the august President and his sons 
in the White House, as in any other happy American 
home. And it is said that the Roosevelt boys have seen a 
real live President of the United States down on his hands 
and knees, playing bear — "a real, live Teddy-bear, with 
a table or a bush for his den." Undignified, eh? Maybe 
so, but that Teddy-bear was an ideal American father 
and raised the right kind of American boys. 

The Colonel taught his sons to box and to shoot, to 
swim and row and sail and ride. He tried to teach them 
not to be afraid of anything. Their home at Sagamore 
Hill was a regular menagerie of strange pets. At various 
times the Roosevelt children had such playfellows as a 
lion, a hyena, a wild-cat, a coyote, two parrots, five bears, 
an eagle, a barn owl, several snakes and lizards, a zebra 
which the Emperor of Abyssinia sent them, kangaroo- 
rats and flying squirrels, rabbits, and guinea-pigs. 

Many of these animals and reptiles were sent to the 
family as gifts, and after a time were added to the public 
zoological collection in New York. The kangaroo-rats 
and flying squirrels slept in the pockets and blouses of 
the children, whence they sometimes made unexpected 
appearances at the breakfast and dinner table or in 
school. Many an American family has had similar experi- 
ences, as its boys were gro\ving up, but in few families is 
the study of natural history through live specimens so 
liberally encouraged by the parents as it v/as in the fam- 
ily at Sagamore Hill. 

294 



THE YOUNG MAN'S HERO 

While a strict disciplinarian in his home, Mr. Roose- 
velt mingled comradeship with exercise of authority in a 
manner that made a successful father. It is said of him 
that while he might postpone important affairs of state 
to "play bear" mth his children, he was also known to 
excuse himself to a company of friends who were spend- 
ing the evening at his home while he went upstairs to 
spank one of the children who had disregarded repeated 
admonitions to make less noise. He was a chum of all 
the members of his household. He repeatedly expressed 
disapproval of the ''goody-goody boy." He said on one 
occasion : 

" I do not want any one to beheve that my little ones 
are brought up to be cowards in this house. If they are 
struck they are not taught to turn the other cheek. I 
haven't any use for weaklings. I commend gentleness 
and manliness. I want my boys to be strong and gentle. 
For all my children I pray they may be healthy and 
natural. ' ' 

A Faithful Old Nurse 

In the home of Mrs. Mary Ledwith, 89 years old, of 
336 East Thirty-first Street, for more than fifty years 
governess and nurse in the Roosevelt family, the portrait 
of Colonel Roosevelt was draped in black on the day of 
his funeral. Mrs. Ledwith was employed by the family 
of Mrs. Roosevelt before she took up her employ in the 
family of the Colonel, where she remained until his 
second term in the White House. 

Her room is filled with portraits of the members of 
the Roosevelt family, and Mrs. Ledwith proudly told of 
the frequent visits made by Colonel Roosevelt to her 
home. The last visit, Mrs. Ledwith said, was made ijy 

295 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

him in April, 1918, when he came bounding up the stairs 
to her apartment on the second floor, knocked on the 
door, and burst into the room \\dth a hearty greeting. 

"Well, I'll probably be arrested as a burglar," were 
his first words on that occasion to Mrs. Ledwith. * * I have 
entered three apartments already in search of you and 
the tenants seemed badly scared." 

Mrs. Ledwith said she was with Mrs. Eoosevelt's 
family long before the Colonel's wife was born and put 
her first baby dress on her. 'When Theodore Roosevelt 
married Miss Carow, Mrs. Ledwith accompanied them to 
London. She entered the employ of the Carows during 
Buchanan's presidency when the Carow homestead was 
at Fourteenth Street and Broadway, which in those days 
was well out in the country. 



296 



CHAPTER XIX 
THE SQUARE SPORTSMAN 

Theodore Roosevelt' s High Standard in Sports — A Lover 
of Clean Sport — Himself an Athlete — Sports in the 
White House — A Close Follower of Football — A 
Great Hwtiter — His Fondness for Boxing — Friends 
Among the Experts — Wrestling at Albany — Roose- 
velt as an Outdoor Man — A Really Great Naturalist. 

When Theodore Roosevelt died there passed away the 
best beloved sportsman in America — and the squarest. 
He set a standard in sports that may well be regarded 
as ideal for universal emulation, and he had an honest 
hatred for the shady methods of the ''sport" and the 
gambler. Himself an athlete of no mean rank, he num- 
bered among his personal friends more experts in all 
branches of clean sport than any man in public life in the 
world has ever had, and he thoroughly enjoyed their 
acquaintance. 

The late Martin J. Sheridan, all-round athlete incom- 
parable, often declared Theodore Roosevelt was the 
greatest man in the world. With a twinkle in his eye 
Martin would remark: 

''I arrived at that conclusion on the September day in 
1908 when the President received the American Olym- 
pians at Sagamore Hill. Two incidents then took place 
that led me to realize what a wonderful man Theodore 
Roosevelt is. One of them was Mel Sheppard's presenta- 
tion to the President of the medal he had won in the 800- 
meter event at the London Olympics. The other was the 

297 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

declaration of Pat Conway, president of the Irish-Ameri- 
can Athletic Club, that, although he was a Democrat, ho 
was sorry he had but one vote he could cast for Roosevelt. 

''Any man," declared Sheridan, "that can make Mel 
Sheppard give us a medal and make Pat Conway forget 
all about Tammany Hall is the greatest man in the 
world. ' ' 

A Lover of Clean Sport 

Then Martin would go on to state his true reasons for 
his great admiration of Roosevelt — the man's red- 
blooded Americanism, his love for clean, honest, manly 
sport, and his open hatred for the milksop and the 
crooked and unfair in athletics. Perhaps it can be said 
^vithout exaggeration that nine-tenths of the sporting 
world felt the same sentiments toward the famous sports- 
man who on January 6, 1919, breasted the tape in the 
race of life. 

No President, no man high in public life, ever had as 
great love for manly sports as Theodore Roosevelt, says 
George B. Underwood, the well-known sporting writer. 
Few professionals even had so many acquaintances in 
sport, amateur and professional, as the former President. 
He knew intimately and openly expressed his friendship 
for John L. Sullivan, Bob Fitzsinmions, Terry McGovern, 
and Prof. Mike Donovan, among the boxers; Billy Mul- 
doon, Ernest Roeber, and Bill Brown, among the 
wrestlers. 

The American athletes who, upon President Roose- 
velt's invitation, visited him at Oyster Bay in 1908 were 
surprised at his knowledge of athletics and his familiar- 
ity with their doings. 

The veteran trainer, Mike Murphy, was the first in 
line when the introductions were being made. ' ' No need 

298 



THE SQUAKE SPORTSMAN 

of introducing Murphy," broke in Mr. Roosevelt as the 
late James E. Sullivan was introducing the athlete. 
*'Mike and I are old friends." 

*'Ah, Mr. Sheppard, glad to meet you," President 
Roosevelt exclaimed. '"That was a bully race you ran 
in the 800-meter event. 

''Well, if here isn't Martin Sheridan, the greatest 
athlete of them all. Martin, you and I must have a little 
talk as soon as I meet the rest of the boys and we get a 
chance to get together. 

"And little Johnny Hayes — the little man wdth the 
big, stout heart ! Johnny, you showed the British some- 
thing about Yankee grit and gameness, I reckon. Now 
tell me, weren't the middle stages of the Marathon harder 
on you than the last mile? Yes, I thought so. Once we 
get past the middle part of any difficult undertaking the 
worst is over. And how much weight did you lose! Six- 
teen pounds ! My word, I guess I'll have to go out and do 
a Marathon if it will take weight off that way." 

What Athletics Did for Him 
Through athletics Theodore Roosevelt developed from 
a puny, sickly child into a strong, robust man. Realizing 
the benefits accruing from indulgence in athletics, he con- 
tinued to exercise regularly as long as he was able to. 
Just before his last sickness he spent a fortnight at a 
physical culture farm at Stamford, Conn. 

When he became President Colonel Roosevelt gave a 
mild shock to the advocates of Jeffersonian simplicity 
and the worshipers of historic association by converting 
the Cabinet room of the White House into what he play- 
fully declared the "Administration's Department of 
Physical Culture." 

299 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

The well-known Cabinet table, bookcases, maps, 
globes, clocks, chairs, rugs, bronze, and marble busts gave 
way to wrestling mats, shields, boxing gloves, foils, sin- 
gle-sticks, wire masks, and punching bags. 

There Colonel Koosevelt used to box with the late Pro- 
fessor Mike Donovan, wrestle w^ith Professor J, J. 
O'Brien of Boston, and joust with single-sticks with Gen- 
eral Leonard Wood. It was there, also, that President 
Roosevelt took jiu-jitsu lessons from Hitachuyami, the 
famous master of the ancient art of the Samurai. On 
the tennis court outside the President daily would engage 
in matches, with Ambassador Jusserand of France gen- 
erally as his partner. Across the Potomac was an open 
hilly section in which Colonel Roosevelt and Senator 
Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts occasionally took 
cross-country runs. 

Followed Football Closely 

President Roosevelt always was a familiar figure at 
Harvard- Yale football games and at the boat races in 
New London. He especially was fond of football and 
watched the sport closely. Just how closely can be seen 
by the following incident : 

On December 4, 1905, the committee to notify Presi- 
dent Roosevelt that the House was organized and ready 
for business, including Representatives McCleary of 
Minnesota, Littauer of New York, and Williams of Mis- 
sissippi, called Secretary Loeb to ask when the Presi- 
dent could see them. It then was approaching 3 o'clock. 

''The President cannot see you between 3 and 6 
o'clock," Mr. Loeb telephoned after a consultation with 
Colonel Roosevelt. 

''Why not?" asked the committee. 

300 



THE SQUARE SPORTSMAN 

''He is busy," said Loeb, and hung up the telephone. 

The President was busy talking football with Walter 
Camp and Jack Owsley of Yale, Bill Reid and Dr. D. H. 
Nicholas of Harvard, Arthur T. Hillebrand and John B. 
Fine of Princeton. The previous football season had re- 
sulted in many more accidents than usual, and the Presi- 
dent was of the opinion that for the good of the game the 
rules should be revised. It was for that purpose he had 
called Mr. Camp and his associates to Washington. 

Letter to Harvard Fullback 

Ernest Ver Weibe, the Harvard fullback, whose splen- 
did rushes were largely responsible for Harvard getting 
within kicking distance for Vic Kennard to boot the drop 
kick that beat Yale in 1908, has a letter he will ever cher- 
ish. It is from President Roosevelt, who took time from 
a busy day, November 24, 1908, shortly after the game, 
to write Ver Weibe and tell him of the admiration he and 
every other Harvard man had for him. 

Another Washington incident shows that the interest 
Mr. Roosevelt displayed in boxing while he was Police 
Commissioner in New York did not abate after he became 
President. 

Near the completion of the Olympic Games in Athens 
in 1906, after America had piled up an unbeatable lead, 
James E. Sullivan, the American Olympic Commissioner, 
was found on the field and handed a cablegram. It read : 

''Hearty congratulations to you and the American 
contestants. Uncle Sam is all right. 

"(Signed) Theodoee Roosevelt." 

Vice-President of P. S. A. L. 

President Roosevelt w^as intensely interested in ath- 
letics for the young and was one of the sponsors of the 

301 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Public Schools Athletic League. Up to his death he 
served as honorary \4ce-president of the League. Sev- 
eral times he turned down other engagements to attend 
P. S. A. L. meetings or to address the boys. 

At a meeting of the State Mothers' Association in 
Albany, when Colonel Roosevelt was Governor, he told 
the mothers to '*let the boys fight their battles, for it 
means better and stronger men." 

Theodore Roosevelt always was on the firing line for 
all that is good in sport and all that makes for better and 
truer Americans. He exercised the same good influence 
on honest, manly sports that he did in American politics, 
and his influence mil live after him. 

His Interest in Boxing 

Theodore Roosevelt's interest in boxing developed 
when he was 14, and rose out of the primitive need of 
being able to protect himself against boys who sought to 
impose on him. At that time he ventured forth by him- 
self on a trip to Moosehead Lake and on the stage coach 
that bore him there he met two mischievous boys of his 
own age who proceeded to make life miserable for him. 
Made desperate by their persecutions, he decided to lick 
them, but found that either one singly was more than a 
match for him. 

Bitterly determined that he would not be again hu- 
miliated in this way, he resolved to learn how to defend 
himself, and, with his father's approval, started to learn 
boxing. 

Mr. Roosevelt himself relates how, under the training 
of John Lee, an ox-prizefighter, whose rooms were orna- 
mented with \'ivid pictures of ring champions and battles, 
he first put on the gloves. For a long period he was 

302 



THE SQUARE SPORTSMAN 

knocked around the ring with no other fighting quality 
in evidence but the ability to take punishment. But then, 
when his boxing master arranged a series of matches, he 
was entered in a hghtweight contest and left to the care 
of his guardian angel. 

Luckily his opponents chanced to be two youths whose 
ambitions greatly exceeded their science and muscular 
development, and, to the surprise of all concerned, he 
emerged the possessor of the prize cup for his class — 
a pewter mug that, though it would have been dear at 50 
cents, was nevertheless a rich compensation for the 
knockdowns and bruises he had endured during his 
training. 

A Harvard Contest 

It is not until young Roosevelt entered Harvard that 
we again hear of his putting on the gloves. 

In spite of his battle for health, Roosevelt was far 
from being a robust man when he entered college. A 
friend described him as appearing to be ''physically un- 
developed." Some such remark may have reached his 
ears, for, although he was engrossed in his studies and 
more than ever interested in natural history, he resumed 
vigorously the sport of boxing. 

His near-sightedness had shut him out from basebaU 
and football and he was too light for an oarsman. Good 
sight and full weight are major assets to a boxer, yet, 
lacking them, Roosevelt doggedly went ahead. 

In the middle of a college bout time was called. He 
stopped boxing, but his opponent kept on, and the sur- 
prised Roosevelt found himself reeling from a blow on 
the nose. A cry of "Foul!" arose from the spectators. 

Roosevelt, bleeding, protested to his friends to stop 
their protests. Above the clamor he could be heard cry- 

303 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

ing to the referee: "Stop! Stop! He didn't hear!" 
Whether or not his opponent really had heard is a mat- 
ter of conjecture. However, the hubbub ceased; Roose- 
velt shook hands with his opponent; the bout was re- 
sumed, and Roosevelt fell on his adversary and gave him 
a beating that went down in the annals of college history. 

A Championship Bout 

In his account of Roosevelt as an outdoor man, Henry 
Beech Xeedham furnishes this interesting picture of 
Theodore in his college days : 

"It was a bout to decide the lightweight champion- 
sliip of Harvard. The heavyweight and middleweight 
championships had been awarded. The contest for the 
men under 140 pounds was on. Roosevelt, then a junior, 
had defeated seven men. A senior had as many victories 
to his credit. They were pitted against each other in the 
finals. The senior was quite a bit taller than Roosevelt 
and his reach was longer. He also weighed more by six 
pounds, but Roosevelt was the quicker man on his feet 
and knew more of the science of boxing. The first round 
was vigorously contested. Roosevelt closed in at the very 
outset. Because of his bad eyes he realized that in-fight- 
ing gave him his only chance to win. Blows were ex- 
changed with lightning rapidity, and they were hard 
blows. Roosevelt drew first blood, but soon his own nose 
was bleeding. At the call of time, however, he got the 
decision for the round. 

"The senior had learned his lesson. Thereafter he 
would not permit Roosevelt to close in on him. With his 
longer reach, and aided by his antagonist's near-sighted- 
ness, he succeeded in landing frequent blovrs. Roosevelt 
worked hard, but to no avail. The round was awarded 

304 



THE SQUAEE SPORTSMAN 

to the senior. In the third round the senior endeavored 
to pursue the same tactics, but \\4th less success. The 
result of this round was a draw, and an extra round had 
to be sparred. Here superior weight and longer reach 
began to tell, but Roosevelt boxed gamely to the end. Said 
his antagonist : *I can see him now as he came in fiercely 
to the attack. But I kept him off, taking no chances, and 
landing at long reach. I got the decision, but Roosevelt 
was far more scientific. Given good eyes, he would have 
defeated me easily." 

The Wrestling Governor 
When Mr. Roosevelt entered upon his public career 
heavy burdens were laid upon him, and to keep in condi- 
tion to meet the hard physical and mental strain, he again 
turned to boxing and wrestling for exercise. When Gov- 
ernor of New York the champion middleweight wrestler 
of America came several evenings a week to wrestle with 
him. The news of the purchase of a wrestling mat for the 
Governor's mansion at Albany created consternation on 
the part of the State Comptroller, but was greeted with 
great enthusiasm by the red-blooded men to whom the 
Governor had become an idol. Many of these would have 
given all they possessed to have been able to stand at the 
edge of the mat and cheer their champion in his strenuous 
amusement. To the middleweight champion the job vras 
a hard one. Not because he experienced any difficulty in 
downing the Governor, but because he was so awed by 
the Governor's position and responsibilities that he was 
always in dire anxiety lest the Governor should break an 
arm or crack a rib. This gingerly attitude of his oppo- 
nent exasperated the Colonel. He didn't feel that it was 
fair for him to be straining like a tiger to get a half- 

305 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Nelson hold on the champion, while the latter seemed to 
feel that he must play the nurse to him. After repeated 
urgings, he managed to get the champion to throw him 
about in real earnest — then he was satisfied. 

Colonel Roosevelt relates in his reminiscences that, 
while he was in the New York Legislature, he had as a 
sparring partner a second-rate prizefighter who used to 
come to his rooms every morning and put on Ihe gloves 
for a half -hour. One morning he failed to arrive, but a 
few days later there came a letter from him. It devel- 
oped that he was then in jail ; that boxing had been simply 
an avocation with him, and that his principal business 
was that of a burglar. 

Roosevelt was fond of boxing Arith ''Mike" Dono- 
van, trainer at the New York Athletic Club, as well 
as with William Muldoon, the wrestler and trainer. His 
opponents testify that the Colonel was handicapped by 
his poor sight. He wanted to see his adversary's eyes — 
to catch the gleam that comes before a blow. Roosevelt 
always maneuvered to see his opponent's face, and he 
liked to "mix in" when boxing. 

Hard and heavy was the Colonel's method, and his 
opponents forced him to adapt his plan of fighting to 
theirs. It did not matter to Roosevelt. It was the striv- 
ing, not the result, that interested him. 

Boxing in the White House 

Lieutenant Fortescue, a distant relative of the Roose- 
velt family, sometimes put on the gloves with the Colonel 
in the White House. One day, feeling in fighting trim, 
Fortescue asked the Colonel to box with him. Finally the 
latter agreed to go four rounds. According to Joseph 
Grant, detective sergeant of the Washington police de- 

306 



THE SQUARE SPORTSMAN 

partment, detailed to the AVliite House to "guard" the 
President, it was the fastest bout he ever saw. 

**The Colonel began to knock Lieutenant Fortescue 
right and left in the second round," said the detective. 
''His right and left got to the army officer's jaw time 
after time, and the bout was stopped in the third round 
to prevent the army man from getting knocked out. Then 
the Colonel turned to me and said : 'I think I can do the 
same to you. Put on the gloves!' 

"I drew them on reluctantly, and I put up the fight 
of my life. The best I could do was to prevent a decision 
and get a draw." 

Mr. Roosevelt numbered among his treasures a pen- 
holder Bob Fitzsimmons made for him out of a horseshoe, 
and a gold-mounted rabbit's foot which John L, Sulhvan 
gave to him for a talisman when he went on his African 
trip. 

He championed the cause of prizefighters on many 
occasions, though never hesitating to denounce the crook- 
edness that has attended the commercializing of the ring. 
He held that powerful, \'igorous men of strong animal 
development must have some way in which their spirits 
can find vent. His acts while Police Commissioner of 
New York show clearly how he distinguished between 
the art of boxing itself and the men who try to make 
money out of it. On one hand, he promoted the estab- 
lishment of boxing clubs in bad neighborhoods in order 
to draw the attention of street gangs from knifing and 
gun-fighting. On the other hand, finding that the prize 
ring had become hopelessly debased and was run for the 
benefit of hangers-on who permitted brutality, in order 
to make money out of it, he aided, as Governor, in the 
passage of a bill putting a stop to professional boxing f jr 
money. 

307 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

It was a sporting rule of the Colonel's not only to give 
as good a blow as he could, but also to take without 
squirming the hardest blow his opponent could deliver. 
The wrestler who hesitated to stand him on his head 
because he was Governor of New York exasperated him, 
nor would he have permitted a man to spar with him who 
held back his blows. 

In recent years boxing and wrestling have been recog- 
nized and practiced by our army officers as valuable 
adjuncts to military training. Uncle Sam encouraged the 
science of fisticuffs on shipboard and in the training 
camps, under a committee headed by the famous ex- 
champion, James J. Corbett, because the positions and 
motions used in boxing are almost the same as those used 
in bayonet practice. The development of gameness in 
the recruit is another important benefit derived from the 
sport. 

If Theodore Roosevelt had realized his desire to serve 
with the colors during the world war, he would undoubt- 
edly have been an enthusiastic spectator at such of the 
army's ring battles as were within reach of him. Indeed, 
say the authors of ''The Fighting Roosevelts," had he 
been still occupant of the White House it would not have 
been surprising to have heard of his inviting cliampions 
from the various cantonments to test their skill under the 
White House roof. Mr. Roosevelt was first drawn to two 
naval chaplains, Fathers Chidwick and Rainey, through 
his discovery that each of them had bought sets of boxing 
gloves and encouraged tlieir crews in boxing. He was 
also intensely interested in jiu-jitsu, the ''muscleless art.'* 
After taking a course of twenty lessons from his Japan- 
ese instructor, his enthusiasm over it led him to introduce 
jiu-jitsu instruction at Annapolis and West Point. 

308 



THE SQUAKE SPORTSMAN 

Fondness for Fisticuffs 

A characteristic anecdote of Colonel Eoosevelt's 
fondness for fisticuffs was related after Ms death by Mr. 
Eobert J. Mooney, formerly associate publisher of the 
Chicago Inter Ocean. The scene was the President's 
office in the White House during the presidential cam- 
paign of 1904. Mr. Mooney said : 

''I was in Washington August 18, 1904, being then on 
the editorial staff of the New York Tribune. A boyhood 
chum of mine — I do not care to mention his name, as he 
is still in the Government service — met me and asked if 
I knew the President and could get him an interview. 

''I repUed 1 knew William Loeb, the President's sec- 
retary, and would do my best. I called up Mr. Loeb, who 
told me to bring my friend to the White House. We 
went. There was a line of more than 100 people waiting. 
I sent my card in to Mr. Loeb, who came out in a few 
minutes and beckoned us to come in. 

*'In his private office the President hurried to greet us 
and said to my friend — who was amateur boxing and 
wrestling champion of the District of Columbia : 

*' 'You are the finest looking man in boxing togs I 
ever saw. Now tell me — how did you knock out Blank 
that night I saw you at the clubT 

<< <Why, Mr. President, it was a punch like this,* he 
replied. He illustrated it in the air. 

*' 'Show it to me! Show it to me! Hit me on the 
chin as you hit him. ' 

"My friend did it, but softly. 

" 'No, no ; that won't do. Hit me hard. Hit me the 
way you hit him. * 

My friend did it. He gave the President an awful 
punch in the jaw. 

309 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

" * That's it, that's it. I've got it now,' exclaimed the 
President delightedly. ' Now let me try it on you. ' 

* * He did. He hit my friend and sent him reeling. 

'* 'I've sure got it,' the Colonel said. 'I'm going to 
try it tomorrow on Lodge and Garfield. Won't they 
squirm?' And the President laughed like a boy. 

''I said to him: 'Mr. President, you've got the 
strongest back I ever saw. ' 

" 'Yes, it is quite strong,' he replied, immensely 
pleased. 

' ' Then I told him our errand. 

" 'Yes, I know all about you,' he said to my friend. 
'No man in the service is more entitled to promotion than 
you. You shall have it tomorrow. ' 

"We had been there an heur, talking and scuffling. I 
was scared for fear some secret service man might see us 
from the T\indow. 

"I learned afterward that among the waiting crowd 
were W. C. Beer, a member of the firm of J. P. Morgan 
& Co. ; General Boynton, one of the managers of the Asso- 
ciated Press, and several politicians of national fame, 
who wished to see the President about his campaign. ' ' 

Roosevelt as a Hunter 

Colonel Roosevelt's fame as a hunter of big game is 
well founded. It was characteristic of him that he always 
obeyed his guides, and did his full part in every expedi- 
tion. By the unanimous assertion of every man who ever 
went on a hunting trip that involved camp life for a con- 
siderable length of time, there is nothing like participa- 
tion in such an expedition for bringing out and making 
clear the fundamental realities of character. It reveals 
both virtues and vices, strengths and weaknesses, and 

310 



THE SQUARE SPORTSMAN 

emphasizes them all. Not only are many of the restric- 
tions and inhibitions created an-d enforced in ordinary 
community intercourse suddenly removed or weakened, 
but new demands are made for the endurance of incon- 
veniences and the performance of hard and distasteful 
work. 

For these reasons it is important to know what the 
celebrated hunter of big game in Africa, R. J. Cuning- 
hame, says about Colonel Roosevelt as a companion on a 
hunting trip that was as long, as hard, and dangerous as 
a hunting trip could well be. 

Mr. Cuninghame is a man not at all likely to give 
undeserved praise, and when he declares that the Colonel, 
on his famous African trip, met with extraordinary suc- 
cess all the requirements of an ideal associate in the 
mlds, he speaks with high authority and his verdict is 
decisive. It is to be noted, too, that among the virtues 
ascribed to the man so often accused of rash impulsive- 
ness, of indocility to discipline, and disregard for the 
judgment of others, was that of scrupulous, cheerful, 
prompt obedience to the orders given and regulations 
laid down by the leader of the expedition. He submitted 
even when he did not understand, and though he some- 
times questioned, it was after, not before, he obeyed. 
Hardships did not discourage him, troubles did not make 
him lose his temper, and dangers attracted him instead 
of dismaying him. This was the spirit of the true sports- 
man. 

Mr. Cuninghame makes it quite clear that there sur- 
vived in the Colonel most strongly, the joy in the chase 
and its triumphant ending that in the innumerable gener- 
ations of the past was the hunter's reward for the labor 
on which, more than on any other, depended the welfare 
of the tribe. 

311 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Colonel Roosevelt danced and shouted with glee after 
shooting his first "tusker." But he was not a game 
butcher, and, though his killing usually lacked as excuse 
the primordial need for food, it was as far as possible 
from being an indiscriminate and brutal slaughter. 

The Lover of Nature 

John Burroughs, the great naturalist, declared that he 
did not know a man with a keener and more comprehen- 
sive interest in Nature and wild life, an interest both 
scientific and human. Speaking of President Roosevelt's 
trip to the Yellowstone Park in April, 1903, Burroughs 
said he was struck with the extent of his natural history- 
knowledge and his trained powers of observation. On 
that occasion the naturalist was able to help the President 
identify only one bird. All the others the President rec- 
ognized as quickly as Burroughs himself. 

It was while the President's party was in the Yellow- 
stone that he remarked : 

**I heard a Bullock's oriole a little while ago." 

*'You may have heard one," w^as the polite objection 
of a man familiar with the country, ''but I doubt it. 
Those birds won't come for two weeks yet." 

**I caught two bird notes which could not be those of 
any bird except an oriole," the President insisted. 

"You may have the song twisted," observed a friend. 

As the members of the party were seated at supper in 
the cabin that evening Mr. Roosevelt suddenly laid down 
his knife and fork, exclaiming, "Look! Look!" 

On a shrub before the window was a Bullock's oriole. 
Nothing that happened on the whole trip seemed to please 
the President so much as that verification of his bird 
knowledge. 

i{12 



THE SQUARE SPORTSMAN 

After a visit to the President at Sagamore Hill in 
1907, John Burroughs wrote that the one passion of 
Roosevelt's life seemed to be natural history, for a new 
warbler that had appeared in the woods "seemed an 
event that threw the affairs of state and the Presidential 
succession into the background." He told a political vis- 
itor at that time that it would be impossible for him to 
discuss politics then, as he wanted to talk and hunt birds, 
and for that purpose he took his visitors with him. 

'TPancy," suggests Burroughs, "a President of the 
United States stalking rapidly across bushy fields to the 
woods, eager as a boy and filled with the one idea of 
showing to his visitors the black-throated green war- 
bler!" 

On this walk the party passed a large and wide- 
spreading oak. The naturalist pointed to it and observed 
that it was a remarkable example of the noble tree. 

^* Yes, and you see by the branching of that oak," said 
the President, ''that when it grew up this wood was an 
open field, and maybe under the plough; it is only in 
fields that oaks take that form." 

"That is true," agreed the naturalist, "but for the 
minute when I first observed the tree my mind didn't take 
in that fact." 

Knew Animals and Birds 

"Do you see anything wrong with the head of that 
pronghorn?" asked Eoosevelt as he handed Burroughs a 
copy of his "Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail." 

It was a picture of a hunter bringing in an animal on 
the saddle behind him. Burroughs saw nothing wrong 
with the picture. The President took the naturalist into 
one of his rooms, where the mounted head of a pronghorn 
hung over the mantel, and pointed out that the eye was 

313 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

'* close under the root of the horn," whereas the artist, 
Remington, had placed the eye in the picture two inches 
too low. 

Mr. Roosevelt's interest in birds and natural history 
of course dated from his boyhood. Early in his teens he 
published a list of the birds in Franklin County, New 
York. He kept a bird journal at the age of 14, when he 
was in Egypt, and on that tour with his father up the 
Nile to Luxor his success as a naturalist w^as foreshad- 
OM^ed, for he made a collection of Eg}'ptian birds found 
in the Nile Valley which is now in the Smithsonian Mu- 
seum in Washington, D. C. 

"V\Tien he went to Harvard, it was his ambition to be 
a naturalist, but there he became convinced, it is said, that 
all the out-of-door worlds of natural history had been 
conquered and that the only worlds remaining were to 
be conquered through the laboratory, the microscope, and 
the scalpel. 

A Really Great Naturalist 

In his natural history studies, as in all his other un- 
dertakings, Colonel Roosevelt was most painstaking and 
accurate and on more than one occasion he emerged tri- 
umphant from a dispute with professional naturalists 
over some rare specimen. 

Scientists generally acknowledged the Colonel an au- 
thority in this field. Carl Akeley, head of the elephant- 
hunting expedition in Africa for the American Museum 
of Natural History, and now connected with the Elephant 
Hall of the museum, paid tribute after the Colonel's death 
to this phase of his accomplishments. Mr. Akeley, while 
hunting elephants in the African ^\dlds, encountered the 
Roosevelt expedition there and hunted with the party for 
some days. 

314 



THE SQUARE SPORTSMAN 

'* Colonel Roosevelt was an amateur naturalist, and 
yet he was a naturalist of splendid training," said Mr. 
Akeley. ''He had the keen eye and mind of the ideal 
naturalist and he was further aided by a phenomenal 
memory such as few men profess. He found infinite joy 
in studying wild animal life in its native haunts, and the 
least of his pleasure in Mlhng it. His greatest pleasures 
lay in seeing and learning, thereby proving him an ideal 
naturalist. 

*'Many of his statements on the subject of his explo- 
rations and discoveries were twisted and ridiculed by 
hostile and ignorant critics. His enemies made great 
fun of the River of Doubt, the uncharted stream he traced 
to its source in the South American wilds. But the facts 
remain that he rendered a great service to the science of 
geography by locating it exactly, and that the Brazilian 
Government named it after him, 'Rio Teodoro.' 

"Incidentally, I believe that his exposure and trials 
on that Brazilian trip led to his death." 

As a nature-lover at all times the President seems to 
have stood the test of being able to see little things as 
well as big things, and of seeing without effort and pre- 
meditation. Yet a degree of patience was required for 
the accumulation of his knowledge in these fields. The 
warblers, both in color and song, are bewildering to the 
experienced ornithologist. Nevertheless, John Bur- 
roughs says, the President had mastered every one of 
them. 

He wrote Burroughs one day that he had just come 
in from walking with Mrs. Roosevelt about the White 
House grounds looking up the arriving warblers. 

"Most of the warblers," he said, "were up in the tops 
of the trees, and I could not get a glimpse of them, but 

315 



LIFE OF THEODOEE ROOSEVELT 

there was one with chestnut cheeks, with bright yellow 
behind the cheeks, and a yellow breast thickly streaked 
with black, which has puzzled me. I saw the black bur- 
rian, the summer yellow bird, and the black-throated 
green. ' ' 

But he did not let his yellow-breasted visitor go away 
without learning his name. A few days later he wrote ; 
**I have identified the warbler. It is the Cape May." 

His Love of Song Birds 

The ordinary hunter or ranchman would hardly inter- 
rupt his story of cattle and game to write such a passage 
as this about song birds, as Mr. Roosevelt did in one of 
his hunting books : 

''The meadow-lark is a singer of a higher order (than 
the plain skj^lark), deserving to rank with the best. Its 
song has length, variety, power, and rich melody; and 
there is in it sometimes a cadence of wild sadness inex- 
pressibly touching. Yet I cannot say that either song 
would appeal to others as it appeals to me, for to me it 
comes forever laden with a hundred memories and asso- 
ciations; with the sight of dim hills reddening in the 
dawn, with the breath of the cold morning winds blowing 
across lonely plains, with the scent of flowers on the sun- 
light prairie, with the motion of fiery horses, with all the 
strong thrill of eager and buoyant life. I doubt if any 
man can judge dispassionately of the bird songs of his 
own country ; he cannot disassociate them from the sights 
and sounds of the land that is so dear to him.'* 

Tale of a Shrew- 
Mr. Roosevelt's eyes were continually alert for the 
unusual when on hunting excursions. Once while in the 
Selkirks after caribou, with a hunter and an Indian guide, 

316 



THE SQUARE SPORTSMAN 

he amused himself while resting after lunch by getting 
a specimen of rare animal life for a friend. He says : 

''I was sitting on a great stone by the edge of the 
brook, idly gazing at a water-wren which had come up 
from a short flight — I can call it nothing else — under- 
neath the water, and was singing sweetly from a spray- 
splashed log. Suddenly a small animal swam across the 
little pool at my feet. It was less in size than a mouse, 
and as it paddled rapidly underneath the water its body 
seemed flattened like a disk and was spangled with 
tiny bubbles like specks of silver. It was a water-shrew, 
a rare little beast. I sat motionless and watched both the 
shrew and the water-wren — water-ousel, as it should 
rightly be named. The latter, emboldened by my quiet, 
presently flew by me to a little rapids close at hand, light- 
ing on a round stone and then slipping unconcernedly 
into the swift water. Anon he emerged, stood on another 
stone, and trilled a few bars, though it was late in the 
season for singing, and then dived into the stream again. 
* * * In a minute or two the shrew caught my eye 
again. It got into a little shallow eddy and caught a 
minute fish, which it carried to a half-sunken stone and 
greedily devoured, tugging voraciously at it as it held it 
down with its paws. Then its evil genius drove it into a 
small puddle alongside the brook, where I instantly 
pounced on it and slew it, for I knew a friend in the 
Smithsonian at Washington who would have coveted it 
greatly." 



317 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



A MAN! 

About his brow the laurel and the bay 

Was often wreathed, — on this our memory dwells, — 
Upon whose bier in reverence today 

We lay these immortelles. 

His was a vital, virile, warrior soul ; 

If force were needed, he exalted force ; 
Unswerving as the pole star to the pole, 

He held his righteous course. 

He smote at Wrong, if he believed it Wrong, 
As did the Knight, with stainless accolade; 

He stood for Right, unfalteringly strong, 
Forever unafraid. 

With somewhat of the savant and the sage, 
He was, when all is said and sung, a man, 

The flower imperishable of this valiant age, — 
A true American ! 

Clinton Scollard, in N. Y. Sun. 



318 



CHAPTER XX. 
ROOSEVELT THE AUTHOR 

Literature His Profession — A Prolific Writer of History, 
Politics, Biography, Travel and Essays — Regular 
Contributor to the Magazines — His Versatility and 
Remarkable Output — A Master of Concise and Vigor- 
ous English — List of His Works. 

In private life the vocation of Theodore Roosevelt 
was authorship. Literature was his profession from 
parly days, and he practised it wdth the greatest success. 
He had many avocations, and entered with zeal into them 
all, but he w^as at all times essentially a writing man; and 
he has left his imprint indelibly on American literature. 

Very early Mr. Roosevelt decided to use his pen. 
Though his fortune was enough to make it unnecessary 
to work merely for a living, he did tell friends when his 
family began to increase that he would have to write for 
money if he was to give his children the education he 
desired for them. 

Almost from the time when he left college, and even 
during his Presidential term, essays, histories, biogra- 
phies, and books of a narrative or descriptive character 
came from his facile pen with the regularity of the sea- 
sons, while numerous contributions to the magazines and 
reviews further attested to his literary activity. Within 
two years of his graduation from Harvard he published 
his first book, on the naval operations of the war between 
Great Britain and the United States, 1812-1815, which 
became at once, and still remains, the recognized author- 

319 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

ity for this period. His subsequent writings brought the 
American spirit before the world in its true light, for his 
pen was ever patriotic. 

When in 1884 he turned his back upon politics, shook 
the dust of New York from his feet, and buried himself 
in the North Dakota wilderness, he spent his evenings in 
his ranchhouse writing books. His "Hunting Trips of 
a Ranchman" and his "Life of Thomas Hart Benton" 
were both written in North Dakota. 

"Systemized His Mind" 

During his first twenty years of worldly adventure his 
mind had become filled with a vast store of ideas — some 
of his very own and some not his own. At the age of 40 
he began to reduce them to order — to edit them, as it 
were, for publication, casting out the dubious and out- 
worn and reducing the rest to a connected system. The 
result was his famous address on "The Strenuous Life," 
delivered before the Hamilton Club in Chicago, April 10, 
1899 (see Chapter IX). 

The principles of this philosophy of strenuosity may 
be reduced for brevity's sake, to four cardinal proposi- 
tions, which have been stated as follows : 

1. The goal of the human race is the complete mas- 
tery of the natural forces which work toward its destruc- 
tion. 

2. The only way a man can earn the right to life is 
by taking part in that battle to the limit of his skill and 
strength. 

3. The only way a woman can earn the right to life- 
is by furnishing warriors for the fray. 

4. The man who shirks that fray and seeks to live 
by preying upon the warriors or who opposes them in 

320 




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At Pocatello, Idaho. "What American stands for more than 

aught else. Is for treating each mtm on his 

worth as a man." 



ROOSEVELT THE AUTHOR 

the field or seeks to turn them aside from the main bat- 
tle by setting them at one another, is an enemy to the 
human race. 

In 1897 Mr. Eoosevelt said: "Literature is my pro- 
fession. Any usefulness that I may have depends, in my 
view, upon my willingness to quit politics at any time." 

His style was direct. He had not at all cultivated the 
flowers of rhetoric. He never appeared in his work to 
have written only for his own amusement. 

And Roosevelt the author did for the sports of the 
\^ilds what John Burroughs has done for the life of the 
fields and woodlands — made them into intimate pictures 
of American life. 

Roosevelt on Reading 

Mr. Roosevelt was a voracious reader. Where and 
how he found the time to keep up his reading, no one pre- 
tends to know. Almost every time he met an author, 
either well-known or obscure, he proved in two minutes ' 
conversation that he was familiar with the latter 's lit- 
erary output. This pleased the author, of course, who 
was ''delighted" to send him copies of everything he had 
written. Being ''one of them literary fellers" himself, 
every author who had come within range of Roosevelt 
insisted upon an introduction and attempted to bind the 
friendship by forwarding a copy of everything he had 
ever written. 

"A book must be interesting to the particular reader 
at that particular time," said the Colonel in his autobi- 
ography, "but there are tens of thousands of interesting 
books and some of them are sealed to some men and some 
to others ; and some stir the soul at some given point of 
a man's life and yet convey no message at other times. 

321 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

The reader, the book lover, must meet his own needs with- 
out paying too much attention to what his neighbors say 
those needs should be. He must not hypocritically pre- 
tend to like what he does not like. Yet at the same time 
he must avoid that most unpleasant of all the indications 
of puffed-up vanity which consists in treating mere indi- 
vidual, and perhaps unfortunate, idiosyncrasy as a mat- 
ter of pride. I happen to be devoted to 'Macbeth,' 
whereas I very seldom read 'Hamlet' (though I like parts 
of it). Now I am humbly and sincerely conscious that 
this is a demerit in me and not in 'Hamlet'; and yet it 
would not do me any good to pretend that I like * Hamlet' 
as much as 'Macbeth' when, as a matter of fact, I don't. 
. . . I enjoy the ballad and I don't enjoy the drama; 
and therefore the ballad is better for me, and this fact is 
not altered by the other fact that my o^m shortcomings 
are to blame in the matter. ' ' 

Diversity of Reading 

When he was President he economized his time so 
that he could get some reading. Lawrence Alibott, presi- 
dent of The Outlook, once called on him at the White 
House. The President laid down the volume he was 
reading, face down, so he could pick it up without loss of 
time. 

"What is it, Mr. President?" Mr. Abbott asked. 

' ' Ferrero 's ' Rome. ' Of course, you have read it ? " 

"No, I don't know about it." 

'Well, you ought to. I got it because of a favorable 
review I saw in The Outlook." 

Wlien the Colonel was campaigning in 1912 a corre- 
spondent for the Kansas City Star was on his train in 
Kansas. Between speeches, he says, the Colonel was 

322 



ROOSEVELT THE AUTHOR 

busy with a bulky volume. It was Sutherland's ''The 
Origin and Growth of the Moral Instinct. ' ' 

His Work as a Critic 

The words of Lord Morley were often applied to Mr. 
Roosevelt when he entered an active pohtical life: "A 
man of letters temporarily called to other duties." 

Allan F. Westcott speaks of him as follows : "Among 
his ventures in literature, his work as a critic is of course 
subordinate to his historical writings and his chronicles 
of the chase. Even the term 'critic of literature' is no 
doubt larger than his writings of the type would war- 
rant, for review-writing does not always lift itself into 
criticism, and the material Mr. Roosevelt has considered 
has not always been literature in the stricter sense. 
Gathered together, however, Ms critical papers, signed 
and unsigned, which have appeared in the magazines 
during the last twenty years, are more numerous than 
one might suppose, and, in the light of their authorship, 
of more than ephemeral value." 

Wrote on Many Subjects 
A list of his works shows his versatile mind and wide 
range of literary interests, for an examination of the 
appended hst, ^rith descriptions, shows that history, poli- 
tics, biography, sociology, economics, and criticism have 
occupied his attention and time. And, in spite of the 
Hberahty of this showing there are plentiful evidences 
that he worked carefully and conscientiously. There are 
few marks of haste or unpreparedness in his writings, 
while all that has come to us from his pen is stamped by 
the personahty of the man — his aggressiveness, positive- 
ness, honesty, determination and "gO." 

323 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

His Published Works 

The published works of Theodore Roosevelt were, in 
the order of their appearance, as follows : 

"The Naval War of 1812" (1882). 

"Hunting Trips of a Ranchman" (1885). 

"Life of Thomas Hart Benton" (1887). 

"Life of Gouverneur Morris" (1887). 

"Ranch Life and Hunting Trails" (1888). 

♦ ' Essays on Practical Politics " ( 1888 ) . 

"New York" in "Historic Towns" (1890). 

"American Big Game Hunting" (1893). 

"The Wilderness Hunter" (1893). 

"Hero Tales from American History" with Henry Cabot 
Lodge, (1895). 

"Winning of the West," four volumes (1889-1896), the most 
important of his works. 

"American Ideals and Other Essays (1897), a collection of 
magazine articles. 

"Trail and Campfire" (1897). 

"Big Game Hunting in the Rockies and on the Great Plains" 
(1899). 

"The Rough Riders" (1899). 

"Life of Oliver Cromwell" (1899). 

"The Strenuous Life" (1900), a collection of essays and 
addresses. 

"Good Hunting of Big Game in the West" (1907). 

"Addresses and Presidential Messages, 1902-190-4" (1904). 

"Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter" (1906), besides 
portions of works like Volume VI in " History of the Royal Navy 
of England," and the "Deer and Antelope of North America" 
(1902), in "The Deer Family." 

"African Game Trails" (1910). 

"The Now Nationalism" (1910). 

"Realizable Ideals" (the Earl Lectures), (1912). 

"Conservation of Womanhood and Childhood" (1912). 

"History as Literature, and Other Essays" (1913). 

"Theodore Roosevelt: an Autobiography" (1913). 

"Life History of African Game Animals," two volumes 
(1914). 

"Through the Brazilian Wilderness" (1914). 

"America and the World War" (1915). 

324 



ROOSEVELT THE AUTHOR 

"A Booklover's Holidays in the Open" (1916). 

"Fear God and Take Your Own Part" (1916). 

"Foes of Our Own Household" (1917). 

"National Strength and International Duty," Stafford Little 
Lectures, Princeton University (1917). 

"The Great Adventure," his last book, published just before 
Christmas, 1918, by Scribner's. 

Among his many popular magazine articles and addresses 
are: "American Ideals," "True Americanism," "The Many 
Virtues and Practical Politics," "The College Graduate and 
Public Life," "Phases of State Legislation," "How Not to Help 
Our Poorer Brother," "The Monroe Doctrine," "Washington's 
Forgotten Maxim," "National Life and Character," "Social 
Evolution," "The Law of Civilization and Decay," "Expansion 
and Peace," "Latitude and Longitude of Reform," "Fellow 
Feeling a Political Factor," "Civic Helpfulness," "Character 
and Success." 

"Winning of the West" 

The first two volumes of "Winning of the West," Mr. 
Roosevelt's historical work of the greatest dignity and 
value, appeared in 1889. The third volume was pub- 
lished in 1894. Thus it appeared that for many years 
before he became active in national affairs he had been 
a student of the development and expansion of the United 
States. The fourth volume of this history was published 
in 1896, and in 1898 he planned to complete a fifth vol- 
ume if he had not been elected Governor of New York. 

The historical subjects he dealt with were American, 
each in some peculiar way, treating either of the absorp- 
tion of territory into the national domain or, as in the 
"History of New York City," describing the making of 
a metropolis out of many and diversified peoples seeking 
freedom of opportunity within the gates of the "prom- 
ised land." 

He published a volume of essays in 1897, ten years 
after his first, calling it "American Ideals; and Other 

325 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSE^^LT 

Essays, Social and Political." The book dealt with the 
problems of that hour and sounded the keynote of his 
moral preaching. He told the story of the raising of the 
Rough Riders and of their part in Cuba in 1899. The 
''Life of Oliver Cromwell" followed, and the world could 
read of one man of action through the eyes of another 
man of action. Then came the ''Strenuous Life," "The 
Deer Family," "Outdoor Pastimes of an American 
Hunter" and other volumes, followed by "African Game 
Trails," many scenes of which were written in camp 
just after the hunting excursions described. 

High Praise from Authority 

This volume, which has since become well known, was 
described by a writer for the National Geographic Society 
as an "unusual contribution to science, geography, litera- 
ture and adventure. Naturahsts will prize the accurate 
descriptions of the huge beasts by a hunter naturaUst. 
He is the first naturalist of much experience with Ameri- 
can big game to study all the large species of Africa, so 
that his comparisons and observations form a particu- 
larly valuable contribution to knov.dedge. " 

There was in general in all that Mr. Roosevelt wrote 
a certain metallic conciseness of style and effect. This 
was particularly noticeable in his long messages to Con- 
gress. But the ' ' effect of plain statements often repeated 
and enlivened by striking phrases here and there which 
came about by accident or design was never absent in his 
many messages and speeches." 

It was in describing experiences out-of-doors or in 
referring to mid animal or bird life that he gave his best 
e\Tdences of a keenly emotional nature. Yet during hi": 
Icaddrship of the Progressives in 1912 his public speak- 

326 



ROOSEVELT THE AUTHOR 

ing' took on an emotional character of such a nature that 
some of his speeches will hardly be found to be surpassed 
for sheer eloquence in the history of American oratory. 
The peroration of his Carnegie Hall address, for 
instance, stands unique, surcharged by all the circum- 
stances attending it and through its literary form with 
emotion electric in its nature and effect. 

Great Gift of Phrase-Making 

His gift of phrase making was an essential part in his 
picturesque Americanism. His phrases frequently be- 
came a common part of the common speech, and few of 
those accepted have as yet become obsolete. Without 
effort apparently he made famous *'the strenuous life," 
the ^'larger good," ''the square deal," ''the predatory 
rich," "mollycoddles and weaklings," "undesirable citi- 
zens," "beaten to a frazzle," "ci\dc righteousness," 
"deliberate and infamous mendacity," "the big stick" 
nnd "the hat in the ring." 

"His many-sidedness was literally indescribable. It 
defied observ^ation and the power of anecdote. There 
can be little question of the rank to which history will 
assign him. That he was a tremendous force neither his 
personal nor his political friends or enemies ever denied. 

"B}^ Americans he was considered to be essentially 
xA^merican whether in his relations mth men, in his con- 
tact ■\Wth all sides of life, in his f orcefulness, in his readi- 
ness to meet emergencies, in his commonplaces and epi- 
i^rams, in his criticism of his times, whether artistic or 
literary. His literary observations always revealed him 
as an American first and foremost." 



327 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



A Favorite Poem 

This poem by Hamlin Garland was one of Colonel 
Roosevelt 's favorites : 

wild woods and rivers and untrod sweeps of sod, 

1 exult that I know you, 

I have felt j^ou and worshipped you. 

I cannot be robbed of the memory 

Of horse and plain, 

Of bird and flower. 

Nor the song of the illimitable West Wind. 



328 



CHAPTER XXI 

ANECDOTES OF ROOSEVELT 

Interesting Little Stories that Will Long Survive the 
Beloved Colonel, Illustrating His Fearlessness, 
Energy, Versatility, Patriotism and Other Outstand- 
ing Traits of His Many-Sided Character. 

The life of Theodore Roosevelt was a succession of 
dynamic events, and he put action into everything with 
which he came into contact. As President he fought red 
tape continually, was always impatient mth the slow 
functioning of Congress, and spoke his mind freely. 
There were besides so many novel events in his career 
that good stories about him are told in abundance. Many 
of these anecdotes are reproduced in this chapter, includ- 
ing a large number that illustrate his amazing energy 
and versatility. 

On every occasion the elemental human feelings of 
Colonel Roosevelt were apparent. When America got 
into the war he applied, not for command of the first 
expeditionary force, but for command of a brigade in 
that force — the lowest rank open to a man of his age. 
President Wilson refused his request. A Western news- 
paper man saw him in New York the next day. But he 
hardly mentioned the incident, although it was naturally 
a bitter disappointment to him. 

S29 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

The thing that was engrossing his thoughts was the 
word that his two oldest sons, who had obtained commis- 
sions at the Plattsburg training camp, had thrown up 
their commissions to enlist in the expeditionary force 
under Pershing. 

*'I wouldn't have it otherwise for the world," he 
said. ''And yet I can't bring myself to think of it. I 
have lived my life. My work is probably done. It 
wouldn't make the slightest difference if I were killed. 
But it's different \\'ith boys with their lives before them. 
Of course I know in reason that if all my boys go over 
early in the war, they won't all come back. We can't talk 
about it yet at home. ' ' 

A few wrecks later he remarked to a friend that for 
the first time in his life he couldn't sleep. He had always 
been able to throw off any worries while he was Presi- 
dent. ''But now," he said, "I wake up in the middle of 
the night wondering if the boys are all right, and think- 
ing how I could tell their mother if anything happened." 

Then came Quentin's death in France. A friend saw 
the Colonel at the Harvard Club a few minutes after the 
news had come. 

"I know what you want to say," the Colonel said, "I 
know what is in your heart. But we mustn't think about 
that. The only thing to think of now is how to win the 
war." 

The Roosevelt impulse to "speak right out in meet- 
ing" was indelibly impressed on the minds of a number 
of Denver citizens a few years ago. The innocent cause 
of the frank outburst was Judge Ben Lindsey of juvenile 
court fame, who was a friend of Colonel Roosevelt for 
years. 

330 



ANECDOTES OF ROOSEVELT 

The incident was staged at one of the side entrances 
of the Denver Auditorium, where Colonel Roosevelt was 
scheduled to deliver an address. The time was in early 
September, 1910. The late Mayor Speed headed the com- 
mittee w^hich had charge of the day's ceremonies. Inas- 
much as Judge Lindsey and the ''powers" controlling 
Denver at that time were very much at outs, Judge Lind- 
sey was not invited to serve on the committee. 

Desiring to at least say "How-do" to his distin- 
guished friend, the judge stationed himself at the side 
entrance which the Colonel would use to reach the speak- 
er's stand. As Colonel Roosevelt stepped from the motor 
car preparatory to entering the building he saw Judge 
Lindsey. "Hello, there, Ben; where have you been keep- 
ing yourself? Come on in!" was the Roosevelt greeting. 

"I have not been imdted," replied Judge Lindsey, 
shaking hands. At once fire showed in the Colonel's eyes 
and, turning to the committee, he said: 

"Gentlemen, haven't you made arrangements for 
Judge Lindsey to sit on the stage with us?" 

' ' One of the party spoke up : " No, Mr. Roosevelt, we 
did not make any arrangements for the judge to be with 
us." 

* ' Well, ' ' snapped the Colonel, "he is going to be one 
of the party just the same — come along, Ben ! ' ' 

Grabbing the astounded judge by the arm, Colonel 
Roosevelt piloted him to the stage and placed Mm in a 
front seat close to the speaker's stand. 

The committee gasped a few times, but had not a 
word to say. 

The general public saw Colonel Roosevelt chiefly as 
a first-class fighting man, stern, energetic, dealing and 
taking heavy Blorws. To his frienids, indutling journal- 

S31 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

ists in all parts of the country, he was altogether a dif- 
ferent personality — '* buoyant, exuberant, witty, full of 
boyish enthusiasm to the very end, and human to the last 
degree." 

A visitor from the Kansas City Star, for which the 
Colonel wrote a daily editorial, saw him at the Roosevelt 
Hospital in New York a fortnight before his death. He 
had been laid up for several weeks with rheumatism and 
was sitting in his dressing gown beside the bed. He lis- 
tened with the greatest interest to the gossip that the 
\dsitor brought from Washington and commented on it 
with keen insight. 

The subject of international relations came up, and 
he discussed other nations and leading foreign statesmen 
with the quaint humor that was characteristic of him. 

'*In dealing with the Japanese," he said, ''we ought 
to do absolutely the reverse of what Hearst is doing. He 
is constantly denouncing and attacking them. We ought 
to treat the Japanese with the utmost politeness and con- 
sideration. When they join with us in patrolling the 
Mediterranean or in a Red Cross drive, we ought to give 
them the most generous recognition. And then we ought 
to send the fleet around once in a while so they can look 
at it." 

Then he added this general principle of diplomacy. 
''In dealing with other nations we ought always to get on 
beautifully unless we are prepared to protest about some- 
thing and go to the mat over it. We should never take 
the middle course in wrangling over matters that wo 
don't intend to see through. That simply produces irri- 
tation and gets nowhere." 

Of course this was simply another way of putting his 
famous maxim: "Speak softly and carry a big stick." 

332 



ANECDOTES OF ROOSEVELT 

A leading Republican Senator had asked the Kansas 
City man to deliver a message to the Colonel. 

* ' Tell him for me, ' ' the Senator had said, ' ' that I think 
he is getting in bad with the people by talking so favor- 
ably about England. His saying that we ought to have a 
treaty for universal arbitration ^\ith England, and that 
we don't need a navy as big as England's — that sort of 
thing doesn't sit well." 

The message was duly delivered with the comment 
that the visitor didn't agree with it. *'Nor do I," 
exclaimed the Colonel. '^I alienated the entire German 
vote in 1916 because I thought it was necessary to speak 
out against Germany in the war. Does anybody suppose 
I am going to keep from saj^ng what I think ought to be 
said about England now, in order not to alienate the anti- 
English vote? I don't do business that way." 

The talk drifted to President Wilson's latest address 
to Congress and his insistence on Tatiijing the Colombian 
treaty. 

**It seems to me," he said, ''that I merely applied the 
famous principle of 'self-determination for small peo- 
ples' to the state of Panama." 

The League of Nations was mentioned, and the Colo- 
nel remarked that of course he was as anxious as any- 
body possibly could be to make the peace settlement as 
lasting as possible. "But I have had enough experience 
in affairs to know the danger of attempting to bind the 
American nation in a permanent alliance w^th the conti- 
nent, ' ' he added. ' ' A friend of mine has been up arguing 
with me about it. He insisted that the people of Europe 
had had a change of heart on account of the war. 'Yes,' 

333 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

I said, 'about as much as the people of New York vrould 
have if they all got together in a mass meeting and 
adopted resolutions that there should be no more vice in 
New York City.' " 

Colonel Roosevelt had a host of friends in Philadel- 
phia. His last words there were spoken at the Broad 
Street Station on the morning of January 10, 1917 : 

''I've had a bully time." 

He used the same words in describing his whole life. 
They might sei-ve for his epitaph. 

In 1902 the Colonel spoke at the dedication of the new 
Central High School building, Philadelphia. 

He gave the boys the famous advice which he said he 
had heard on the football field : ' ' Don 't flinch, don 't foul, 
and hit the line hard." 

A Philadelphia friend wrote him only a few days 
before his death, reminding him of an occasion on which 
he had uttered the same doctrine at Harvard when he 
talked to a small audience of undergraduates on "Play 
ing for Harvard." Those were the days when lie was 
Police Commissioner in New York. 

Colonel Roosevelt's answer was dated January 1, 
1919. In it he paid a warm tribute to "Dave" Goodrich, 
a leading athlete, who was his right-hand man in Cuba. 

He said at Harvard, with his teeth set, as he rest- 
lessly paced the platform : 

"If I had a son who refused to play polo for fear of 
breaking his neck — I'd disinherit him." 

When the time came, none of his sons was found 



wanting. 



334 



ANECDOTES OF ROOSEVELT 

At the beginning of Mr. Roosevelt's first administra- 
tion as President he insisted on frequent target practice 
for the navy. He requested and received one very large 
appropriation for ammunition, and Congress expressed 
amazement when he demanded almost immediately more 
money. Asked what had happened to the first fund, he 
said: 

''Every cent has been spent for powder and shot, and 
every bit of powder and shot has been fired." 

When he was asked what he intended doing with the 
additional sum, he said; 

"I shall use every dollar of that, too, within the next 
thirty days in practice shooting. That's w^hat ammuni- 
tion is made for — to burn." 

Soon after that, Mr. Roosevelt, as President, pre- 
scribed that officers of the army, navy, and marine corps 
should ride ninety miles in three days as an endurance 
test. He rode ninety-eight miles himself in a driving- 
storm of rain, snow, and sleet in one day. He left the 
White House at 3 :40 a. m., rode to Warrenton, Va., and 
got back to the ^Hiite House at 8 :30 p. m. 

James Bliss Townsend, who was born in Oyster Bay 
and had been a friend of Roosevelt from boyhood, told 
at a dinner after his death that he went to Colonel Roose- 
velt in 1916 and asked him what he would have done in 
the Lusitania case. 

Colonel Roosevelt, according to Mr. Townsend, said 
that hindsight, of course, was easier to show than fore- 
sight, but that if he had been President he would have 
sent for Ambassador von Bernstorff immediately after 
the advertisements warning passengers not to travel on 
the Lusitania were printed in the newspapers. He said he 

335 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

would have asked if the advertisements were official, and 
if he had been told they were he would have given the 
German Ambassador and all of his staff two hours to get 
out and would have forced them to take passage on the 
Lusitania on ^vhat turned out to be her last voyage. 
Colonel Roosevelt added: 

^'I am sure the Lusitania would not have been sunk 
had I been the President then. ' ' 

A year as physician at the TVhite House enables Cap- 
tain George A. Lung, Medical Corps, U. S. N., command- 
ing the New York Naval Hospital, Brooklyn, to recount 
many anecdotes of Colonel Roosevelt. Dr. Lung was 
detailed to the White House in August, 1902, and 
remained with the President a year. 

** President Roosevelt was always a good patient," 
said Captain Lung. ''He obeyed orders, though some- 
times impatient about being kept in bed. He used to 
say : * If I live long enough I wall get well. ' 

"On our trips he used to thnist his head out of the 
car windows to wave at folk at railroad stations. We 
cautioned him against the danger of being shot or 
bombed and he would reply, 'Better put me in a conning 
tower.' 

"In New Hampshire we were going up a steep hill. 
The Colonel got out and said he would hike it. I fol- 
lowed suit. The others remained in the carriage. He 
started up the hill at breakneck speed. I had on light 
patent leather shoes. For three miles we plodded on at 
a high pace. I panted and gasped. IVfy collar wilted. I 
perspired. It was a pace of four miles an hour. 

"At the end the Colonel was all in. So was I. But 
the President exclaimed, 'Great, bully!' I said, 'This 

336 




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in America, He Went Through a New Experience in Egypt — Like the 

Game Sportsman That He Was, He Mounted the Camel and Soon Was 

at Hi» E^ase. They Were on Their Way to Visit a Famous Battlefield. 




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At Ogden, Utah. Secretary of A«rriculture Wilson, President 
Reosovelt and S«nator Smoot. 




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■J 



ANECDOTES OF ROOSEVELT 

exercise ought to be made a test for promotion.' The 
Colonel thumped his hands together and shouted, "By 
George, I'll do it!' And I have an idea that is what 
inspired his order that army officers go through severe 
physical tests." 

Captain Lung was with him when the Colonel's car- 
riage was run into by a trolley outside Pittsfield, Mass., 
September 3, 1902, and a secret service man in the car- 
riage was killed. 

''The car was filled with people," said the Captain, 
''who were on their way to the country club, to give the 
President a farewell cheer as he left the town. The Presi- 
dent was thrown out and landed on his knees. I helped 
him to rise and gently squeezed his chest to see if any 
ribs were broken. He resented the action and asked to 
be left alone. 

' ' Then he walked over to the motorman who had run 
him down and told him that if the collision was an acci- 
dent it was excusable, but that if it were due to careless- 
ness it was damnable. That was the only time I ever 
heard him utter a profane word. ' ' 

When the American fleet went to Kiel the Kaiser 

visited the flagship Louisiana and saw the President's 

photograph hanging in a conspicuous place and, upon 

leaving, he grandly presented a photograph of himself 

and said that if he had any preference as to where it 

should be hung he would select the spot President Koose- 

velt's picture adorned. The substitution, it is hardly 

necessary to state, was not made. Colonel Eoosevelt used 

to tell that story with a great deal of relish and laughed 

heartily at the idea of the Kaiser wanting to take his 

place. 

337 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Half a dozen Senators and Representatives were in 
the waiting room at the President's office one morning. 
None of them could get in to see the President, however. 
Finally a Senator said to Captain Loeffler : ' ' Go in and 
see what's holding us up." 

Loeffler came back and reported: ''The President is 
gi\dng a reception to the Harvard baseball team." 

''Well," said another Senator, "tell him there are a lot 
of Senators and Representatives here." Loeffler went 
back and returned. 

"What did he sayl" chorused the waiting statesmen. 

"He said he knew it," replied Loeffler, "but he told 
me that Senators and Representatives must be taught 
their places when a Harvard delegation is about." 

Here is a story that Colonel Roosevelt told in the 
White House after Old Bill Sewall, his Maine guide, had 
called on liim. They were on a moose hunt and were 
camped out in the woods. 

One morning while Roosevelt was trying to keep warm 
and Bill was chopping wood a moose walked into the 
clearing. The President grabbed his rifle and fired. 

The moose ran a short distance and then fell. Bill 
laid down his ax and dashed over to the moose. 

"You've got him!" he yelled after a short inspection. 
"How did it happen?" 

"Why, I aimed for his breast," the President said. 

"First class!" shouted Bill, "first class! You done 
well. You Lit him in the eye." 

The very house where the Colonel was born used to 
figure in anecdotage. It was an old brick front, 28 East 
Twentieth street. New York. Li 1903 a detective squad 

S.38 



ANECDOTES OF ROOSEVELT 

raiding gamblers' places went through it. All the gam- 
bling evidence they could find was a pile of ashes in a 
fireplace, and a quaint gathering of sportive and furtive 
gentry busily playing checkers. But on a mantelpiece 
they discovered a hand-painted card, with the truthful 
legend: ''President Roosevelt Was Born in This 
House. ' ' 

This story has been vouched for by members of the 
Colonel's family: On the east side of Madison Square, 
when he used to play there as a little shaver, stood a 
Presbyterian church, and the sexton one day noticed the 
little 'un timidly peeping in. But he wouldn't come in 
for a look around; nothing could induce him. **I know 
what you've got in there," he explained. And later he 
confided to his mother that what the sexton had in there 
which was terrible was ''the zeal," probably something 
like a dragon or an alligator. This reduced itself to his 
memory of Psalm Ixix, 9 : " For the zeal of thine house 
hath eaten me up." 

The Colonel liked to draw his illustrations from famil- 
iar and homely scenes. ' ' Every now and then, ' ' he once 
said, "I have to remind myself that there are a lot of 
Jim Jimpsons in the world. I employ two men at Saga- 
more Hill. Jim always has been second man. On several 
occasions I tried to promote him to first place. But he 
could never hold the job. It was beyond his capacity. 
He was born at Oyster Bay and has never been to New 
York. Once he got as far as Mineola, but the magnifi- 
cence of that metropolis overwhelmed him and he hurried 
back to Oyster Bay." 

339 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

It was known of Colonel Roosevelt that he had a quick 
temper. He could use mighty harsh words in the heat 
of passion. But his strongest expressions when he was 
not excited were "By Godfrey!" and *'By Jove!" 

Colonel Roosevelt liked to pick out someone in his 
audience and talk straight to one person when making a 
speech in public. This often embarrassed the person 
selected. Formerly he always began with, "Ladies and 
gentlemen, and you" filling in the name of the par- 
ticular body he was addressing. Of late years, however, 
"My fellow citizens" was his favorite introduction. 

Roosevelt's fondness for his Rough Riders was 
proverbial. Many stories are told of his custom of neglect- 
ing others for them. Thus Senator Bard of CaUfornia 
took a constituent to see Roosevelt when he was Presi- 
dent. The friend had served in the Rough Riders. 

"Mr. President," began Bard, "I want to present my 

friend ' ' 

"Why, hollo, Jim!" the President broke in. "How 
are you?" 

And for ten minutes the President and Jim talked 
while Bard stood neglected. As the two were lea\dng 
Roosevelt said: "By the way, Jim, come up to dinner 
tonight and bring Bard with you." 

Jacob A. Riis wrote of Colonel Roosevelt once: "His 
love for children, especially for those who have not so 
good a time as some others, is as instinctive as his cham- 
pionship of all that needs a life. I doubt if he is aware 
of it himself. He does not recognize as real sympathy 
what he feels rather as a sense of duty. 

340 



ANECDOTES OF ROOSEVELT 

*'Yet I have seen him, when school children crowded 
around the rear platform of the train from which he was 
making campaign speeches to shake hands, catch the eye 
of a poor little crippled, girl in a patched frock, who was 
making frantic but hopeless efforts to reach him in the 
outskirts of the crowd, and, pushing aside all the rest, 
make a way for her, to the great amusement of the curled 
darhngs in the front row." 

President Roosevelt's impatience of red tape was 
proverbial. The story is told of one committee that had 
been meeting him daily for a week in Washington, always 
to adjourn without perceptible progress. When the com- 
mittee left on this occasion one of them said they would 
do something ** tomorrow." 

''Tomorrow!" the President exploded. ''Gentlemen, 
if Noah had had to consult such a committee as this about 
building the ark, it wouldn 't have been built yet. ' ' 

There is one New York man to whom the Colonel 
owed a small financial debt — United States Marshal 
Thomas D. McCarthy. 

"Yes, the Colonel was my debtor to the extent of 
one penny," said the Marshal. "Here's how it came 
about: On March 3, 1909, just as President Roosevelt 
was to retire in favor of President Taft, I was sent to 
Washington to present to him a handsome hunting knife, 
the gift of Justice, later Ambassador, James W. Gerard, 
with whose court I was associated at the time. 

" ' Be sure to get a coin, a penny, from the President 
when you give him the knife,' the Justice told me. 
'Remember the old superstition that a gift of that sort 
cuts friendship unless a small payment is made for it. ' 

341 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

**"When I gave Colonel Roosevelt the knife I asked him 
for the penny. He didn't have one in his pocket. Neither 
did his secretary, Mr. Loeb. Neither did Senator Cham- 
berlain, who was present. So I volunteered: 'Here, Mr. 
President, I'll lend you a cent.' He took it and put it in 
his vest pocket. 

''After ten minutes of conversation, during which 
time he gave me an autographed photograph for myself 
and a book for my father, who always admired him, the 
President suddenly reached into his pocket, withdrew the 
coin and said : 'Mr. McCarthy, it gives me great pleasure 
to hand you, in return for Judge Gerard's gift, this one- 
cent coin. ' Ever since then I have prized the photograph 
and the book Mr. Roosevelt gave me as one of the most 
cherished possessions of my father. And I always have 
been proud of the fact that a President of the United 
States owed me a penny." 

George William Douglas, in his book, "The Many- 
Sided Roosevelt," tells the following story of his life as 
a young man in the "West : 

"One evening after supper he was reading at a table 
in the public room of a frontier hotel, where he was pass- 
ing the night. The room was office, dining room, bar- 
room, and everything else. A man, half-drunk, came into 
the hotel with a swagger, marched up to the bar, and \vith 
a flourish of his arm, commanded everybody to drink. 
Everybody was ^\^lling to obey; that is, everybody but 
Mr. Roosevelt. He still sat at the table busy with his 
book. 

" 'Who's that fellow?' the man asked, pointing in 
Roosevelt's direction. 

** 'Oh, he's a tenderfoot, just arrived,' someone said. 

342 



ANECDOTES OF ROOSEVELT 

*' 'Humph,' lie grunted. Then he turned square 
around and called out: 'Say, Mr. Four-eyes, I asked 
this house to drink. Did you hear me?' 

''Mr. Roosevelt made no reply. The man swaggered 
over to him, pulling out his pistol and firing as he crossed 
the room. 

" 'I want you to understand that when I ask a man 
to drink with me, that man's got to drink,' he threatened, 
fondling his still-smoking pistol. 

" 'You must excuse me tonight. I do not care for 
anything to drink,' said Roosevelt. 

" 'That don't go here. You just order your drink or 
there'll be more trouble.' 

" 'Very well, sir,' Roosevelt replied, rising slowly to 
his feet and waiting till he was firmly poised on them 
before completing his remark. 'I do not care for any- 
thing, but if I must' 

"With the word 'must' he let his fist fly, striking the 
bully a terrific blow on the jaw and knocking him on the 
floor. In an instant Roosevelt was astride of him, with 
his knees holding down the man's arms. After taking 
away all the weapons he could find, he let the man up. 

' ' ' Now, I hope you understand, sir, that I do not care 
to drink with you,' said the young tenderfoot, who had 
hardened his muscle to some purpose before he went 
V^est. 

Colonel Roosevelt himself was authority for the story 
about the time when, riding the ranges alone, reports of 
hostile Indians about notwithstanding, he noticed three 
mounted braves converging in his direction. As they 
were where friendly Indians had no business to be, he 
slid off his pony, set the sights of his Winchester for long 

343 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

range and showed himself aiming carefully, but did not 
pull the trigger. The trio talked it over and sheered off. 
Colonel Roosevelt said it was the nearest he ever had 
come to actual Indian fighting. 

Probably no man of his time had more pictures taken 
of him than Colonel Roosevelt. They were stacked up in 
every new^spaper office. Many stories are told of his 
experiences with photographers and here is one. 

On his trip to South America, where he discovered 
the ''River of Doubt," he was accompanied by several 
motion picture photographers. One was a free lance who 
was a trifle sensitive about his standing on board. 

During the celebration of the Feast of Neptune, when 
the ship crossed the Equator, there ^vas a pillow fight on 
a rail over a tank of water. The photographers lined up 
to get the picture of the struggle, with the Colonel in the 
background. One of the regular photographers slipped 
a cap over the free lance's camera. 

One of the contestants had just been knocked off the 
pole into the water and Colonel Roosevelt, laughing and 
applauding, turned to the free lance, who was grinding 
away at his useless machine, and said: 

' ' Take otT your cap, young man ! ' ' 

The free lance frowned at the Colonel, thinking he was 
being joshed, and said : 

''I am an Austro-Hungarian subject and have never 
become an American citizen. I don't see why I should." 

The Colonel, continuing to smile, said: 

*'I was merely going to say that if you will take the 
cap off the lens of your camera, we will have the bout 
fought over again so you can obtain a good picture." 

The free lance sheepishly took off the cap from the 
camera, and then bared his head to Colonel Roosevelt. 

344 



ANECDOTES OF ROOSEVELT 

''Better faithful than famous," used to be one of his 
characteristic sayings, wrote Jacob Riis in his life of the 
former President. "It has been his rule all his life. A 
classmate of Roosevelt told me recently of being present 
at a Harvard reunion where a professor told of asking 
a graduate what would be his work in life. 

" ' 0, ' said he, ' really, you know, nothing seems to me 
much worth while.' Roosevelt got up and said to the 
professor: 

'* 'That fellow ought to have been knocked on the 
head. I would take my chances with a blackmailing 
policeman sooner than with him.' " 

An old story about Mr. Roosevelt dates from his term 
as president of the old New York City Board of Police 
Commissioners, in 1896. Commissioner Roosevelt had 
been giving a little dinner to postoffice officials from 
Washington whom he had kno^\Ti there while United 
States Civil Service Commissioner. 

"I gave it," he told a newspaper man, "because of 
their hearty co-operation with me in civil service 
reform,." 

"Was Fourth Assistant Robert Maxwell there?"— 
Maxwell being one official who notoriously hadn't "co-op- 
erated" to any alarming extent. 

"No, no," came back with the Roosevelt snap, "and 
yon mustn't be such a wag, either!" 

The great courage of Mr. Roosevelt and his lack ot 
fear were shown after he was shot in Milwaukee on Octo- 
ber 14, 1912. When he had recovered from his wound he 
was told that he was foolhardy to make a speech after 
he had been shot. 

345 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

*'Why," said Roosevelt in reply, ''you know I didn't 
think I had been mortally wounded. If I had been mor- 
tally wounded I would have bled from the lungs. When 
I got into the motor I coughed hard three times and put 
my hand up to my mouth ; as I did not find any blood I 
thought I was not seriously hurt and went on with my 
speech." 

It is remembered that when his physician on this 
occasion urged him to return to the hotel and not go to 
the Auditorium to speak, the Colonel replied, '*! will 
deliver this speech or die, one or the other. ' ' 

When he completed this memorable address his shoes 
were filled with blood that had rushed from his gaping 
chest wound. The Colonel displayed heroic courage of 
the highest type. 

Along with his marvelous memory of people he had 
ever met anywhere, and of all the associations of the 
meetings, went a memory of each standing joke he had 
enjoyed with them. His reference to one of these jokes, 
in a telegram to a Western friend immediately after he 
was shot, in 1912, mystified so many people, who took it 
for anything from delirium to a private wire code, that 
he had to explain it. 

''Probably a .38 on a .45 frame," he had telegraphed. 
The allusion was to revolvers and their calibres and had 
been a stock phrase of some old plainsman whom he and 
his friend had known. 

R. J. Cunningham, the famous African hunter, who 
was in charge of Colonel Roosevelt's hunting expedition 
in East Africa, said he had never found "any other so 
easy to get along with, and no other man who, by his 

346 



ANECDOTES OF ROOSEVELT 

character, made every man in his service so anxious to 
do the best possible for him." He told the following 
story- of ''one very near squeak" the Colonel had. Said 
he: 

' ' The Colonel was determined to get an elephant, and 
a tusker at that. I told him what that meant, and how 
much risk there was, but he said he was willing to face 
it. That was the Colonel all over. Tell him the risks and 
he would size them up quietly. If he decided they were 
worth while, that was all there v>^as to it. He just went 
ahead and took them mthout saying another word. 

"Well, we found an elephant in a forest on Genia 
Mountain. We had been hunting for three days, and it 
was really hard work for a man of the Colonel's bulk in 
that heat and at that altitude, 11,000 feet. At last I 
caught sight through a thick bush of elephant hide and a 
tusk, about thirty-five feet away, just enough to tell me 
it was a fine specimen. I pointed it out to the Colonel, 
and he fired mtli complete coolness and got the elephant 
in the ear and dropped him. 

"As the shot went off the forest all around roared 
with trumpetings. We were in the midst of a herd of 
cows and young bulls, and one of the latter thrust his 
head through the bushes right over the Colonel's head. 
I was right behind him and fired at once and bowled it 
over. Then I rushed up to the Colonel and said: 'Are 
you all right, sir ? ' But I could see he was before I spoke. 
He hadn't turned a hair. At any moment the cows might 
liave blundered through the bush over us, but he never 
thought of that. He went up to the old chap he had killed 
and gave it the coup-de-grace and then let himself loose. 
I never saw a man so boyishly jubilant." 

347 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

For a long time after Roosevelt's return from Africa 
he was often referred to throughout the world as "Bwana 
Tumbo. ' ' That was the name given to him by the natives 
of Africa, and meant ' ' Big Chief. ' ' 

While Colonel Roosevelt was President he talked with 
the greatest freedom to the newspaper correspondents, 
always relying on their discretion to put what he said 
in diplomatic language. It was in these conversations 
that some of his famous epithets were first used. 

*' Senator So-and-So," he remarked, ''seems to have 
sweetbreads for brains." 

Of a somewhat effeminate public man he said : "Molly- 
coddle is too harsh a term to apply to Freddie." 

*'Yes, So-and-So is a loyal friend," he remarked on 
another occasion, "there is always in the back of his head 
the feeling that if we were cast away on a desert island I 
would kill and eat him." 

In the last few^ weeks before his death, the question 
of the presidential nominee for 1920 was much in the 
minds of Republican congressional leaders in "Washing- 
ton. The feeling was general that Colonel Roosevelt had 
been the man who had been right on preparedness and on 
the Great War long in advance of anybody else ; that he 
had blazed the way and made the issues, and that he 
had earned the party leadership. The Colonel himself 
was absolutely indifferent. He told his friends he would 
not turn his hand over for the nomination. 

"So far as I am concerned," he said, "my position is 
exactly what it was in 1916. I am not at all concerned 
whether the party nominates me or not. What I am con- 
cerned in is that it nominates a man and adopts princi- 
ples that I can support." 

348 



ANECDOTES OP ROOSEVELT 

Mr. Roosevelt's passion for study and his purpose 
always to improve the time was displayed by his plan 
made soon after becoming Vice-President and following 
his realization that he would have much leisure, as the 
duties of the office were not onerous. He asked Justice 
White of the Supreme Court whether it would be digni- 
fied and becoming were he to attend a course of law at 
one of the Washington universities, to prepare himself 
for the bar. The Justice thought it would not be and 
suggested that he should give the Vice-President some 
law books for study and once a week ''quiz" him. This 
plan w^as approved by Mr. Roosevelt, but the assassina- 
tion of President McKinley interrupted its execution. 

Just before the expiration of his last term Mr. Roose- 
velt was discussing the advisability of a pension for 
ex-Presidents. He himself didn't need one, he said, 
because he would be able to earn his living by writing. 
But Mr. Cleveland had been in extremely straitened cir- 
cumstances until Mr. Ryan made him a trustee of the 
Equitable Life at $25,000 a year. 

'*A President who entertains much," he said, ''can't 
save much money on $50,000 a year. The last time I 
entertained a distinguished foreign visitor mth a state 
dinner I said to Mrs. Roosevelt: 'There goes another 
child's schooling for a year.' " 

Mr. Roosevelt's sense of humor is illustrated in 
remarks he made in 1896 when speaking of the Southern 
Populists. He said : 

"Refinement and comfort they are apt to consider 
quite as objectionable as immorality. That a man should 
change his clothes in the evening, that he should dine at 

349 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

any other lioiir than noon, impress these good people as 
being sj'mptoms of depravity instead of merely trivial. 
A taste for learning and cultivated friends, and a ten- 
dency to bathe frequently, cause them the deepest sus- 
picion. Senator Tillman's brother has been frequently 
elected to Congress upon the issue that he never wore 
either an overcoat or an undershirt." 

A few days before the inauguration of Mr. Taft a 
party of insurgent Congressmen called at the White 
House to get help from the President in dealing -with 
Speaker Cannon. Already the disposition of the former 
Secretary of War to ignore the man who made him Pres- 
ident was noticeable. 

"I'd like to help you witli the new President," said 
Mr. Roosevelt, ''but you remember the skipper of the 
Gloucester fisherman who said to his mate, 'AH I want 
out of you, Mr. Jones, is ci-vility — and damn little of 
that.'" _ 

On leaving the A^^iite House President Roosevelt 
declined an offer of the presidency of a large corporation 
at a salary of $100,000 a year. He did this because he 
had determined to make no commercial use of his name. 
He accepted the office of associate editor of The Outlook 
at a salary of $12,000, because he believed it offered him 
the means to reach the people. 

The people of Philadelphia still remember the Colonel 
as — waving his black Stetson — he swept into the fray 
there in October, 1914, in behalf of Pinchot and Vance 
McCormick versus Penrose. 

He styled Penrose "one of a gang of political gim- 
men. ' ' 

350 



ANECDOTES OF ROOSEVELT 

Crammed up against the wheel of his taxicab outside 
the First Regiment Armory while he made an out-of-door 
speech, his audience could fairly see his eyes flash and 
hear his teeth click. What a splendid physical energy it 
was that burned itself out prematurely ! 

Bishop Biermans, Vicar Apostolic of the Upper Nile, 
said in June of 1915, just after visiting Colonel Roosevelt 
at Oyster Bay : 

' ' He told me he would never again be the same man — 
that his trip to South Africa was too much for him." 

On June 10, 1917, the Colonel went to speak for a 
memorial meeting of the railway brotherhoods at the 
Metropolitan Opera House, Philadelphia. 

He was as chock-a-block with vital electricity as Billy 
Sunday at the top of his form, said one of his hearers. 

When he w^ent to the Bellevue-Stratford for lunch, the 
elevator boy in his agitation passed the floor of the Blue 
Room. 

* ' Don 't be hard on him ! ' ' exclaimed the Colonel. ' ' He 
probably thinks there is something of value in the Blue 
Room that I might carry off with me, but he might know 
I am surrounded by detectives." 

A few years ago the Colonel was visiting at the home 
of W. R. Nelson in Kansas City. Looking about the 
library, he said to a member of the family : ' ' Where does 
your father keep his Greek dramatists? You can always 
tell a man of real literary instincts by his Greek dra- 
matists. ' ' Happily the Greek dramatists were in a fitting 
place on the book shelves. 

351 



LVyE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

The .paper cover that publishers put on books is 
always a hotly disputed matter with readers. Those who 
detest it detest it. A visitor from the West who saw 
the Colonel not long before his death carried him a book 
on international affairs. The Colonel expressed his 
pleasure while remo\4ng the wrapper, crumpling it into 
a wad and throwing it on the floor. 

At a state dinner when he was President a woman 
guest noticed with apparent disapproval that he refused 
a cigar. 

"^'^Vhy, Mr. President," she remonstrated. ''Don't 
you smoke?" 

**No, madam," he replied, "but I like to go to prize 
fights. Won't that do?" _ 

*'I had the honor," Colonel Roosevelt once said, "to 
be written up by Creel in "The Masses." I must say he 
took rather a jaundiced "sdew of me." 

John Mitchell, the great leader of the mine workers, 
was always a welcome visitor at the White House when 
Roosevelt was President. Organized labor was recog- 
nized by Roosevelt as a necessity. He believed in the 
enforcement of all labor laws and in the right of the 
workers to organize. In relation to the protective tariff 
he said: "I am for a protective tariff that gets past the 
mill ofiices down into the pockets of the workingmen." 

A friend who ^^sited the Colonel at the hospital heard 
of the numerous political visitors who were calhng on 
him, including standpatters as well as progressives. 

"My, my, Colonel," said the \nsitor, "what company 
you have been keeping. ' ' 

352 



ANECDOTES OF ROOSEVELT 

''"Well," replied the Colonel with a grin, ''like the late 
Colonel Breckinridge of Kentucky, 'I am not a narrow 



As between two of his political antagonists who had 
fallen out Colonel Roosevelt remarked: "My position is 
one of malevolent neutrality." 

Colonel Roosevelt always disclaimed being a genius. 
He said with regard to the successful man: "The aver- 
age man who is successful — the average statesman, the 
average pubUc servant, the average soldier, who wins 
what we call great success — is not a genius. He is a man 
who has merely the ordinary qualities, who has devel- 
oped those ordinary qualities to a^ more than ordinary 
degree. ' ' 

Many persons thought of Colonel Roosevelt as con- 
stantly figuring on politics, and how policies would affect 
him poUtically. The exact opposite was true. Men most 
intimately associated with him never heard him discuss 
his own political fortunes. The only thing he asked about 
a policy was : " Is it right ? ' ' 

One day a strong Roosevelt Progressive met Senator 
Penrose, king of the old standpat crowd. 

"What about the candidate, Senator?" he asked. 

"Well, how about the Colonel?" answered Penrose. 

' ' Oh, I'm for him, all right. But I didn't suppose you 
would be." 

"I'm for him. He's about the squarest man I ever 
ran up against. ' ' 

35b 



LIFE OF THEODORE EOOSEVELT 

''Do YOU know the thing that makes me madder than 
abnost anything else?" the Colonel once said to W. R. 
Nelson. ''That is to see a husky man going along \\'ith 
his wife, letting her carry the baby. I know that sort of a 
fellow is no good." 

A characteristic story is that of a friend who took him 
to task for some mistake he had made in one of his 
appointments. The former President in reply to tlio crit- 
icism said: "My dear sir, where you know of one mis- 
take I have made, I know of ten." 

In his capacity as contributor to the Kansas City 
Star the men on that paper say the Colonel was the most 
considerate of men to work with. He had nothing of the 
small man's pride in what he wrote. 

"If you think any of my stuff is rotten," he said, 
"don't hesitate to throw it away. I always like criticism. 
Secretary Root was invaluable in my cabinet, because he 
was always ready to oppose my ideas. We used to go 
round and round, and when he didn't convince me I was 
wrong he frequently convinced me that I would have to 
modify my position. John Hay disagreed with me. But 
he was too kind-hearted to say so. So he didn't help me 
so much." 

In his writings he was rarely humorous or ironical. 
In conversation he was habitually so. 

Former Congressman Charles G. Washburn of 
Worcester, Mass., after remarking that Roosevelt had a 
lively sense of humor in his college days at Harvard, says 
in his book : "I remember well with what glee he told us 
that he had gone to Boston to get a basket of live lob- 

354 



ANECDOTES OF ROOSEVELT 

sters for laboratory purposes and on the way back they 
escaped, much to the consternation of the women in the 
horse car." 

Colonel Roosevelt liked new martial or sporting imple- 
ments — things he could play with — as keenly as any boy. 
In 1906 the Mikado sent the President as a token of 
esteem a complete suit of samurai armor from the thir- 
teenth century. The President excused himself to an 
informal caller for a moment. Off went his frock coat 
and on went the armor. Presto ! and he made a costume 
parade of one up and down the corridors of the White 
House. 

While the Colonel and his son Kermit were shooting 
in Africa, London Punch, mth a genial inspiration, pub- 
lished a cartoon of the Roosevelts in the Egyptian desert 
carefully stalking the Sphinx. The Colonel was saying, 
''Steady, Kermit; we must have one of these!" When 
he saw it he was so pleased Avith it that he wrote to Lon- 
don and asked to have the original, which was sent to him. 

Speaking of the Rough Riders, Colonel Roosevelt 
said : ''It was necessary to get that regiment into action, 
otherwise it would have been laughed at. We came near 
being left behind, and I admit that I pulled every wire in 
sight to get that regiment to Cuba, and we got there. If 
we had not I should never have been President." 

A cowboy who had been with him with the Rough 
Riders, sure of his sympathy, wrote him from a jail in 
Arizona : 

"Dear Colonel : — I am in trouble. I shot a lady in the 
eye, but I did not intend to hit the lady, I was shooting 
at my wife." 

355 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

To show the live sympathy that all who had been asso- 
ciated with him expected, a story is told that an old com- 
rade in arms approached him and said: "Mr. President, 
I have been in jail a year for killing a gentleman." 

''How did you do it!" asked the President, inquiring 
for the circumstances. 

''Thirty-eight on a forty-five frame," replied the man, 
thinking that the only interest the President had was 
that of a comrade who wanted to know mth what kind of 
a tool the trick was done. 

(The Colonel referred to this incident in a telegram 
to a friend after the Milwaukee shooting.) 

As a nature lover and observer the President became 
best known to the country in 1907, just after his criticism 
of the nature fakers and his own vigorous denials that 
his interest in nature and mid game was that of the 
sportsman merely. 

President Roosevelt took a dignitary out with him for 
a stroll one afternoon, and in the course of the walk 
sighted a steep and rocky knoll, toward which he directed 
his course. He turned to his companion and observed as 
they began making the ascent: "We must get up to the 
top here," and after much panting and laboring the feat 
was accomplished, 

"And now, Mr. President," asked the official, "may 
I ask why we are up here?" 

"Why, I came up here," returned Eoosevelt laughing, 
* ' to see if you could make it. ' ' 

]\rr. Roosevelt was a tireless reader of books and on 
his long railroad trips usually carried half a dozen vol- 

356 



ANECDOTES OF ROOSEVELT 

umes. But the side pocket of his traveling coat always 
held one stoutly bound, well-thumbed book — a copy 
of ''Plutarch's Lives." On campaign tours and pleasure 
jaunts he took a daily half -hour dose of Plutarch. 

''I've read this little volume close to a thousand 
times," he said one day, "but it is ever new." 

"Mr. Roosevelt's creed?" wrote Jacob Eiis, his close 
friend for many years in police work in New York. 
' ' Find it in a speech he made to the Bible Society. ' If we 
read the Book aright,' he said, 'we read a book that 
teaches us to go forth and do the work of the Lord in the 
world as we find it; to try to make things better in the 
world, even if only a little better, because we have lived 
in it. That kind of work can be done only by a man who 
is neither a weakling nor a coward ; by a man who, in the 
fullest sense of the word, is a true Christian, like Great- 
heart, Bunyan's hero.' " 

A message from Theodore Roosevelt was inserted in 
the Bibles given in 1917-18 to the American fighting men 
by the New York Bible Society. This message read : 

"The teachings of the New Testament are foreshad- 
owed in Micah's verse: 'What more doth the Lord 
require of thee than to do justice, and to love mercy, and 
to walk humbly with thy God?' 

"Do justice; and therefore fight valiantly against the 
armies of Germany and Turkey, for these nations in this 
crisis stand for the reign of Moloch and Beelzebub on this 
earth. 

"Love mercy; treat prisoners well; succor the 
wounded; treat every woman as if she were your 
sister ; care for the little children, and be tender with the 
old and helpless. 

357 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

''"Walk Immblv; you will do so if you study the life 
and teachings of the Saviour." 

** Colonel Roosevelt's life," said Judge Ben Lindsey 
at a memorial meeting in Chicago, "was marked always 
by a fortitude which nothing could frighten. During the 
free silver campaign he went to Cripple Creek, the very 
center of the silver movement, to fight for the gold 
standard. 

''His visit began by the citizens pelting him with 
stones. It ended by Theodore Roosevelt winning the 
population over. The same thing occurred in Denver. 

''With this same fortitude he bore the news of his 
son's death. He was tremendously proud of his boys, as 
all America was. He said to me one day: 

" 'Judge, if this war keeps up another year I won't 
have a son left. They're all bears when it comes to fight- 
ing, if the fighting is worth while. They're bears, every 
one of them. ' ' ' 

During a visit to Palo Alto, Cal., Colonel Roosevelt 
standing on the platform of his railway car, singled out a 
wide-eyed boy just at the edge of the platform and made 
of him a hero in Boyville by leaning down and saying to 
him in a series of explosive sentences : 

"Young man, be game, but be decent. If you are 
game, but not decent, it would be better to hunt you out 
of society." 

The little fellow said, "Yes, sir!" and edged away to 
the outer rim of the crowd to think it over. 

"Anyway, I've had a corking time !" Theodore Roose- 
velt said back in the '80s when beaten at the polls for 

358 



ANECDOTES OF ROOSEVELT 

Mayor of New York. ''I've had a corking time," he 
repeated in March, 1909, turning over the Presidency to 
William Howard Taft. And on January 6, 1919, in the 
dawn, though no one mortal heard, would it not have been 
like him, glancing back at the broad roofs on Sagamore 
Hill, ere he hurried on to seek out Quentin in the shining 
ranks of the young men "gone west," to have said, yet 
once more, that he had had a corking time? He always 
did. 

On one of President Roosevelt's Southern trips his 
train stopped at Charlotte, N. C. A committee of women, 
led by Mrs. Thomas J. Jackson, widow of General Stone- 
wall Jackson, was at the depot to greet him. When he 
was introduced he referred to himself as by rigkt a 
Southerner, and then being introduced to Mrs. Ja«kson 
he added a remark which simply flashed through the 
South. 

"What? The widow of great Stonewall Jackson? 
Why, it is worth the whole trip down here to have a 
chance to shake your hand, ' ' and he reminded her that he 
had appointed her grandson to a cadetship at West Point. 

Mr. Roosevelt once told this story at a cabinet meeting 
in Washington : As President, on a Western trip, an old 
Rough Rider of his boarded the train and renewed their 
acquaintance. Later the President received a letter from 
the cowboy asking for $150 to help him defend himself 
against a charge of stealing horses. The Colonel sent the 
money. A month later he received a letter from the cow- 
boy thanking him for the money, but saying that he no 
longer needed it, as his political party "had elected their 
candidate for district attorney." 

3S'» 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Theodore Roosevelt, as assistant secretary of the 
navy, was instrumental in the selection of Dewey to take 
charge of the Pacific squadron during the Spanish-Ameri- 
can war. San Francisco and a few other cities objected. 
They did not know Dewey. 

A delegation was sent to Washington to kick against 
the appointment. The delegation was finally turned over 
to Roosevelt. He listened patiently to their objections 
and said: 

''Gentlemen, I cannot agree with you. We have 
looked up his record. We have looked him straight in 
the eyes. He is a fighter. We'll not change now. 
Pleased to have met you. Good day, gentlemen. ' ' 

A few days after President McKinley had been shot, 
when physicians had given the opinion that he would 
recover, no one felt more joyful than Vice President 
Roosevelt. 

'*To become President through the assassin's bullet 
means nothing to me," he said at the home of Ansley Wil- 
cox in Buffalo. ''Aside from the horror of having Presi- 
dent Mclvinley die, there is an additional horror in 
becoming his successor in that way. The thing that 
appeals to mo is to be elected President. That is the 
way I want the honor to come if I am ever to receive it." 

Roosevelt was in Idaho one day when he saw a copy 
of his book, "The Winning of the West," on a news- 
stand. In talking to the proprietor he casually asked, 
pointing to the book: 

"Who is this man Roosevelt?" 

"0, ho is a ranch driver up in the cattle country," the 
man repHed. 

360 



ANECDOTES OF ROOSEVELT 

*'What do you think of his book?" 

''Well, I've always thought I'd like to meet the 
author and tell him if he 'd stuck to running ranches and 
not tried to write books, he 'd cut a heap bigger figger at 
his trade." 

''Theodore Roosevelt is a humorist," wrote Homer 
Davenport in the Philadelphia Public Ledger in 1910. 
"In the multitude of his strenuousness this, the most 
human of his accomplishments, has apparently been over- 
looked. There is a similarity between his humor and 
Mark Twain's. If Colonel Roosevelt were on the vaude- 
ville stage he would be a competitor of Harry Lauder. 
At Denver, at the stock growers' banquet during his 
recent western trip. Colonel Roosevelt was at his best. 
He made three speeches that day and was eating his sixth 
meal, yet he was in the best of fettle. You couldn't pick 
a hallful that could sit with faces straight through his 
story of the blue roan cow. He can make a joke as fasci- 
nating as he can the story of a sunset on the plains of 
Egypt." _ 

Professor Thayer's "Life of John Hay" contains a 
good deal of delightful Rooseveltiana. Here is a letter 
that Mr. Hay, as Secretary of State, addressed to Presi- 
dent Roosevelt on November 12, 1901. 

"Count Quadt [of the German Embassy] has been hovering 
around the State Department in ever narrowing circles for 
three days, and at last swooped upon me this afternoon, saying 
that the Foreign Office, and even the palace, Unter den Linden, 
was in a state of intense anxiety to know how you received his 
Majesty's Chinese medal, conferred only upon the greatest 
sovereigns. 

"As I had not been authorized by you to express your emo- 
tions I had to sail by dead reckoning;, and considering the 

361 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

vast intrinsic value of the souvenir — I should say at least 30 
cents — and its wonderful artistic merit, representing the Ger- 
man eagle eviscerating the Black Dragon, and its historical 
accuracy, Avhich gives the world to understand that Germany 
was It and the rest of the universe nowhere, I took the respon- 
sibility of saying to Count Quadt that the President could not 
have received the medal with anything but emotions of pleas- 
ure commensurate with the high appreciation he entertains for 
the Emperor's majesty, and that a formal acknowledgment 
would be made in due course. 

"He asked me if he was at liberty to say something like 
this to his government, and I said he was at liberty to say what- 
ever the spirit moved him to utter." 

Here are other interesting passages from Jolin Hay's 
diary : 

* '■ Nineteen hundred and four — January 17 — The Pres- 
ident came in for an hour and talked very amusingly on 
many matters. Among others he spoke of a letter 
received from an old lady in Canada denouncing him for 
having drunk a toast to Helen (Hay) at her wedding two 
3'ears ago. The good soul had waited two years, hoping 
that the pulpit or the press would take up this enormity. 
' Think, ' she said, ' of the effect on your friends, on your 
children, on your own immortal soul, of such a thought- 
less act!" 

''March 18.— At the Cabinet meeting today the Presi- 
dent said someone had written asking if he wanted to 
annex any more islands. He answered: 'About as much 
as a gorged anaconda wants to swallow a porcupine 
wrong end to.' He was berating someone, when it was 
observed that the man was doubtless conscientious. 
'Well,' he burst out, 'if a man has a conscience which 
leads him to do things like that he should take it out and 
look at it — for it is unhealthy. ' " 

362 



ANECDOTES OF ROOSEVELT 

''April 26. — At tlie Cabinet meeting this morning the 
President talked of his Japanese wrestler, who is giving 
him lessons in jiu-jitsu. He says the muscles of liis 
throat are so powerfully developed by training that it is 
impossible for any ordinary man to strangle him. If the 
President succeeds once in a while in getting the better 
of him he says, 'Good! Lovely!' " 

"May 8. — The President was reading 'Emerson's 
Days,' and came to the wonderful closing line, 'I, too late, 
under her solemn fillet saw the scorn.' I said, 'I fancy 
you do not know what that means. ' ' Oh, do I not ? Per- 
haps the greatest men do not, but I in my soul know I am 
but the average man, and that only marvelous good for- 
tune has brought me where I am. ' ' ' 

"October 30. — The President came in for an hour. 
We talked a while about the campaign (1904) and at 
last he said, ' It seems a cheap sort of thing to say, and I 
would not say it to other people, but laying aside my own 
personal interests and hopes — for of course I desire 
intensely to succeed — I have the greatest pride that in 
this fight we are not only making it on clearly avowed 
principles, but we have the principles and the record to 
avow. How can I help being a little proud when I con- 
trast the men and the considerations by which I am 
attacked and those by which I am defended?' " 

And Hay tells how John Morley, the British states- 
man, had said, ' ' The two things in America which strike 
me as most extraordinary are Niagara Falls and Presi- 
dent Eoosevelt." 

"He is a superman if ever there was one," said Conan 
Doyle at the time of his last visit to the United States. 

363 



Roosevelt 

At dawn he passed ; no somber west, 
No evening star or twilight gray, 
No solemn close of weary day, 

No dying sun ; his way was best. 

At dsivra. he passed, the long night through ; 
For him no dusk, no mystic gleam 
Of fading light or pale wan dream; 

He went at dawn as workers do. 

Don't mourn, rejoice ! His words live on, 
Be ours to hold his message high, 
To fight his fights till perils fly 

And traitors, cowards, fears are gone. 

At da^vn he passed where shadows lurk 
But to no mist-swept, ghostly land; 
His valiant soul and eager hand 

Have found some new, still nobler work. 

At dawn he passed, and marched away 
Beyond our little time and space 
With strange, new sunlight on his face 

And new strength for another day. 

— Paul McCurdy "Warner. 



364 



CHAPTER XXII 
DEATH AND BURIAL 

The End Comes in His Sleep — Death Caused by a Pul- 
monary Embolism — His Last Words — Last Message 
to the American People — None Present When he 
Died — Burial in Old Cemetery Near His Home — A 
Simple but Deeply Impressive Ceremony, Such as He 
Desired — Distinguished Men at the Funeral. 

Death came to Theodore Roosevelt with an unexpect- 
edness that stunned the nation, despite the fact that 
recurrent illness was known to have afflicted his last 
years. He passed away in sleep in his home at Oyster 
Bay, N. Y., at 4:15 o'clock in the morning of Monday, 
January 6, 1919, in the sixty-first year of his age. 

It was not the end that the American people would 
have chosen for their great leader, nor the end that he 
would perhaps have chosen for himself. But the unex- 
pectedness of it sent a thrill around the world, while it 
filled his fellow-countrymen with a distinct sense of irre- 
parable loss. 

The cause of death was a pulmonary embolism; that 
is, a clot of blood was carried through an artery to the 
lungs, where it stopped the circulation. Weakening of 
the blood vessels which caused the embolism accompanied 
an attack of inflammatory rheumatism for which Colonel 
Roosevelt had been treated at Roosevelt Hospital, New 
York, from November 11 to Christmas Day, 1918, two 
weeks before the end. The original cause of both mani- 
festations was the infection of a tooth, dating back 
twenty years. 

365 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

All his life the former President had drawn unmerci- 
fully upon his marvelous store of energy. Nevertheless 
up to a comparatively late date, it was generally supposed 
that he had many years yet to live. But he sur\^ved his 
sixtieth birthday by only seventy days. 

The Colonel's Last Words 

His last words were spoken to his personal attendant, 
James Amos, a negro who was devoted to him. As Amos 
was sitting at the foot of the bed, the Colonel said : 

"Please turn out the light, James. I am in for a bit 
of sleep." 

Because of a spell of hard breathing that the Colonel 
had experienced after he retired on Sunday evening, hav- 
ing had two \dsits from a physician in the course of the 
day, Mrs. Roosevelt had asked Amos to stay in her hus- 
band's room all night and watch him. Stepping into the 
room at 2 'clock Monday morning, she found him sleep- 
ing quietly and Amos keeping vigil at the foot of the bed. 

A little after 4 o'clock Amos sprang to the bedside, 
for the Colonel's breathing was labored. He touched his 
master's shoulder, but received no response and the 
breathing seemed to stop. He left the room to summon 
a nurse. Miss Alice Thoms, and she called Mrs. Roosevelt. 

A telephone message to the \dllage brought Dr. George 
W. Fallen, the Oyster Bay physician, who had attended 
the Roosevelt family for twenty-five years. Dr. Fallen 
motored fast to Sagamore Hill, but found Colonel Roose- 
velt dead. He had breathed his last some minutes before 
— apparently while the man-servant Amos was notifjdng 
the nurse. 

At the time of the death, no one was with the Colonel 
at home except his wife, the nurse, and the servants. 
His cousin and summer neighbor, W. Emlen Roosevelt, 

366 



DEATH AND BURIAL 

called on Sunday, found the Colonel asleep, and hearing 
good reports of his progress went away without disturb- 
ing him. His secretary, Miss Josephine M. Strieker, was 
to have gone to Sagamore Hill from his New York office 
on the fateful Monday A^dth editorials and letters that 
he had dictated at the end of the week. 

Needless to say, Theodore Roosevelt was active to his 
last waking moment. On the Sunday evening before his 
death he corrected proofs of his last article for the Metro- 
politan Magazine, and in front of a log Jfire in his library, 
with Mrs. Roosevelt sitting beside him, wrote a letter to 
his son, Captain Kermit Roosevelt, and inclosed a set of 
the proofs. 

His Final Message 

On Saturday, January 4, he dictated a message which 
was read at a meeting of the American Defense Society 
at the Hippodrome, New York, on Sunday night, a few 
hours before he died. In this message he phrased afresh 
the thoughts that had been burning in his mind, and this 
was his last ringing message to the American people : 

' ' There must be no sagging back in the fight for Americanism, 
merely because the war is over. There are plenty of persons who 
have already made the assertion that they believe the American 
people have a short memory and that they intend to revive all 
the foreign associations which most directly interfere with the 
complete Americanization of our people. 

"Our principle in this matter should be simple. In the first 
place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in 
good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, 
he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it 
is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of 
creed or birthplace or origin. But this is predicated upon the 
man's becoming in fact an American and nothing but an Amer- 
ican. If he tries to keep segregated with men of his own origin 
and separated from the rest of America then he isn't doing his 
part as an American. 

367 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

"There can be no divided alleg-iance here. Any man who says 
he is an American, but something else also, isn 't an American at 
all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this 
excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty 
and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a 
nation to which we are hostile. 

"We have room for but one language here, and that is the 
American language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns 
our people out as Americans, of American nationality, and not 
as dwellers in a polyglot boarding house ; and we have room for 
but one soul loyalty, and that is loyalty to the American people. ' ' 

Captain Archie Roosevelt was to have read this char- 
acteristic message in the Hippodrome, but on the Satur- 
day he and his wife received word from Boston of the 
death of her father, Thomas S. Lockwood. 

Summoning of Relatives 

Before 7 o'clock on Monday morning the secretary, 
Miss Strieker, learned over the telephone from Sagamore 
Hill of the Colonel's death. She wired all relatives in this 
country and also cabled Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore 
Roosevelt, Jr., who was in Germany with the Twenty- 
sixth Infantry, in the American army of occupation, and 
asked him to notify all relatives in Europe, including 
Captain Kermit Roosevelt, U. S. A., who was also on 
active service. 

Captain Archie Roosevelt had not reached Boston 
when the word reached him. He left the train, and return- 
ing to New York arrived in Oyster Bay on Monday after- 
noon. Also came the Colonel's eldest daughter, Mrs. 
Nicholas Longworth, from Washington witli her husband. 
Mrs. Richard H. Derby, who was Miss Ethel Roosevelt, 
was on her way from Aiken, S. C, where she and her two 
children went for the winter. Dr. Derby being in France 
with the medical corps of the army. 

Meanwhile a group of relatives and close friends of 
the Roosevelts went to Sagamore Hill from New York. 

368 



DEATH AND BURIAL 

There were Mr. and Mrs. Emlen Roosevelt, Mrs. Theo- 
dore Roosevelt, Jr., and her mother, Mrs. Alexander ; Elon 
H. Hooker, who was treasurer of the Progressive party 
in the brave days of 1912 ; Joseph W. Bishop, whom Pres- 
ident Roosevelt made secretary of the Panama Canal 
Commission, and a few others. They found Mrs. Roose- 
velt bearing up well, everything considered, and after 
learning her wishes as to the funeral W. Emlen Roosevelt 
set about making the arrangements. 

Airplanes Drop Wreaths 

Late in the afternoon of the day of death three air- 
planes flew out of the south and circled over the rambling 
old mansion at the top of Sagamore Hill. Each bore tw^o 
aviators. They dropped wreaths of laurel among the 
elms near the house — their tribute to the memory of the 
former President and their own dead comrade, his 
youngest son, who was shot down while flying over the 
German lines six months before. 

The planes came from Hazlehurst Field, where Quen- 
tin Roosevelt learned the use of wings, where his father 
also made a short flight as a passenger, and whence 
Quentin often flew to visit his parents at Oyster Bay in 
the course of his novitiate. The commander of Hazle- 
hurst Field, Lieutenant-Colonel M. S. Harmon, announced 
that an airplane watch would be maintained over Saga- 
more Hill day and night until the time of the funeral, one 
plane relieving another every few hours. 

The Physicians' Statement 

Late in the afternoon of Monday Emlen Roosevelt 
went to the village of Oyster Bay and gave to the waiting 
newspaper men this statement of the physicians : 

"Colonel Roosevelt had been suffering from an attack of 
inflammatory rheumatism for about two months. His progress 

369 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

had been entirely satisfactory and his condition had not given 
cause for especial concern. On Sunday he was in good spirits 
and spent the evening with liis family dictating letters. He 
retired at 11 o'clock, and about 4 in the morning his man, who 
occupied an adjoining room, noticed that while sleeping quietly 
Colonel Roosevelt's breathing was growing very shallow. He 
died almost immediately, without awakening from what seemed 
to be a natural sleep. The cause of death was an embolus. 

"G. W. Fallen, M.D. 

"John H. Rich.vrds, M. D. 

''John A. H.vrtwell, M. D." 

Dr. Fallen is the Oyster Bay physician, Dr. Richards 
is a New York specialist who had attended the Colonel 
at the Roosevelt Hospital, and Dr. Hartwell, who is a 
relative of Mrs. Alexander, was called into the case as a 
consultant. 

The Final Illness 

Colonel Roosevelt's final illness dated from February, 
1918. It was on the fifth of that month that, f ollo^^ing an 
operation on one of his ears, he was removed from Oyster 
Bay to the Roosevelt Hospital in New York. He 
remained there until March 3, meanwhile undergoing two 
more operations. 

Two months later he insisted on keeping speaking 
engagements arranged for him in many cities, and until 
the fall continued to give from the platform his views on 
international affairs. In November he was forced to 
return to Roosevelt Hospital for treatment of rheuma- 
tism. He remained there until Christmas Day, when he 
returned to Sagamore Hill. 

An Earlier Embolism 

It was learned after his death that Colonel Roosevelt 
suffered a pulmonary embolism which almost cost him his 
life three weeks before he left Roosevelt Hospital on 
Christmas Day. This was revealed by Dr. John H. Rich- 

370 



DEATH AND BURIAL 

ards in telling of the Coloners condition during his last 
illness. 

In the same manner as his death was caused, a clot of 
blood became detached from a thrumbosed vein. On this 
former occasion, however, the passage of this clot through 
the arteries to the lungs or the brain was checked in time 
to save the patient's life. 

Dr. Richardson revealed in his statement that the 
Colonel's inflammatory rheumatism, from which he suf- 
fered acutely at times, was traceable twenty years back 
to an infected tooth. This infection spread to nearly all 
the joints in the Colonel's body as the years went on. 

The physician asserted that the Colonel had never 
suffered from mastoiditis, as was reported when he went 
under the operation a year before for an abscess of 
the inner ear, and that neither this operation nor the 
fever which he contracted while in South America could 
in any way be considered a contributory cause toward 
his death. 

Effect of Quentin's Fate 

It is probable that one thing which contributed to the 
losing fight of the Colonel was the anxiety in the summer 
of 1918 regarding the fate of his son Quentin. For some 
weeks previous to confirmation of his death there were 
reports that he had possibly been taken prisoner by the 
Germans and might turn up alive. This suspense added 
to the distress of the Roosevelt household. 

When the sad news of the son's death finally was 
officially confirmed. General Pershing cabled Colonel 
Roosevelt that if desired the body of Quentin would be 
removed to America. France meanwhile had paid the 
fullest honors to the dead aviator and the Roosevelt fam- 
ily declined to accept the War Department's offer. 

371 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

In a letter to the Chief of Staff at Washington, Colo- 
nel Roosevelt wrote : 

**Mrs. Roosevelt and i wish to enter a most respectful 
but most emphatic protest against the proposed course 
so far as our son Quentin is concerned. We have always 
believed that 

'' 'Where the tree falls, 
There let it lie.' 

*' We know that many good persons feel entirely differ- 
ent, but to us it is painful and harrowing long after death 
to move the poor bodj^ from which the soul has fled. We 
greatly prefer that Quentin shall continue to lie on the 
spot where he fell in battle and where the foeman buried 
him. 

** After the war is over Mrs. Roosevelt and I intend to 
visit the grave and then to have a small stone put up by 
us, but not disturbing what has already been erected to 
his memory by his friends and American comrades-in- 
arms." 

The New^s in the Country 

The news of the Colonel's death plunged the entire 
country into mourning. It came with a shock that made 
it almost unbelievable, but confirmation of the news sent 
the flags fluttering to half-mast in every city, town, and 
village throughout the land and started a flood of mes- 
sages of sympathy and grief toward Oyster Bay. That 
village, stunned by the news, then prostrated by grief, 
did but typify all America. There the Colonel was fully 
appreciated as a world figure, but he also was looked 
upon as a fellow-townsman, like the village blacksmith 
or any other local citizen. Before night in the windows 
of nearly every store and residence were pictures of the 

372 



DEATH AND BURIAL 

former President, draped vnth. crepe and surrounded by 
American flags — the emblems that he loved. 

Colonel Koosevelt's old servants were inconsolable. 
All who ever served him were his friends. James Amos, 
to whom he addressed his last words, and his coachman, 
Charles Lee, had both been with him since his White 
House days. 

*'I have lost the best friend I have ever had," Lee 
said. *'Yes, sir, the best friend that anybody ever had 
in all this world. ' ' 

Last Public Appearances 

On Labor Day, 1918, the Colonel celebrated a ship 
launching at Newburgh, N. Y., keeping a long standing 
promise, and had to shake so many persons' hands that 
he got no luncheon. Late in October, just before election, 
he spoke at a Carnegie Hall meeting, called in the interest 
of the Whitman gubernatorial ticket, but on account of 
President Wilson's appeal to the people to elect a purely 
Democratic Congress it was converted into an answer to 
the President and a challenge. 

Never did the Colonel blaze brighter than on that 
memorable night ; his last act before going to the meeting 
was to dictate an ''insert" for his speech, answering 
assertions that had been made about his own and William 
McKinley's appeals for partisan support when they were 
Presidents. 

In the following week he again spoke in Carnegie Hall, 
this time in behalf of support for the Negro war unit. 
That was his last public utterance — an appeal for the 
Negro. The next morning the Colonel's right hand was 
swollen, and he did not leave his home until December 11, 
the day the European armistice was signed, when he went 

373 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

to the hospital again. When lie emerged, on December 
25, the public supposed that he merely had a furlough for 
Christmas and would return to the hospital. He motored 
to Sagamore Hill. 

On the lawn was Mrs. Derby's little son, calling, 
''Come, granda, we must go in and see what Santy has 
brought for Christmas." They had a rousing family 
party. Thereafter the Colonel did not leave Sagamore 
Hill, except for a trip or two to the village in his auto- 
mobile. 

Worked Despite His Pain 

He and Mrs. Eoosevelt walked about their grounds a 
good deal, but for him the Colonel led a very quiet life. 
Bheumatisin had caused his left hand and leg to swell, 
and he suffered a good deal of pain, but worked at his 
desk prodigiously. 

Always at Christmas time, except when the Roose- 
velts were in the TMiite House or the head of the family 
was away exploring the far corners of the earth, he was 
accustomed to go on Christmas Eve doAvn to the Cove 
School, where his flock had learned their A, B, C's, with 
presents which he would distribute to the children and 
then make a little talk which Oyster Bay folks would 
regard as better than any of his Presidential addresses. 
He could not go this time. Captain Archie Roosevelt 
represented him at the school's Christmas party, and 
handed the gifts around. 

On New Year's Day, as the doctors revealed after his 
death, there was an acute attack of the inflammatory 
rheumatism, which was alarming, but did not last long. 
Dr. Fallen of Oyster Bay \dsited the patient tvnce a day 
and Dr. Richards and Dr. Hartwell also went to Saga- 
more Hill at regular intervals. 

374 



DEATH AND BURIAL 

In High Spirits Sunday 

On Sunday morning, January 5, Dr. Fallen found the 
Colonel in high spirits, and again at 8 o'clock in the even- 
ing. In fact, the doctor had considerable trouble in get- 
ting the Colonel to talk about himself and how he felt. In 
his characteristic manner the former President was bub- 
bling with talk about everything else under the sun. 

He always acted as if he took his ailments lightly, 
although well aware that they might prove serious. At 11 
o'clock on Sunday night the Oyster Bay physician was 
called again to Sagamore Hill. The nurse said that the 
Colonel had had a spell of shortness of breath. The 
Colonel himself said to the doctor : 

*'I felt as if my heart was going to stop beating. I 
couldn't seem to get a long breath." 

*'But the Colonel was not pale or nervous," Dr. Fallen 
said. He looked just as he usually did. His voice was as 
hearty as ever. In fact, he was quite jovial. There was 
nothing in his appearance to indicate what had occurred." 

''Did he have any feeling that the end was near!" the 
physician was asked. 

''None whatever," was the answer. Dr. Fallen added 
that he examined the patient thoroughly, and detected no 
sign of trouble with the heart or the lungs. He left after 
twenty minutes or so and the Colonel retired. Then came 
the telephone call after 4 o'clock in the morning, and the 
finding of Colonel Roosevelt dead in his bed. He lay on 
his left side with his arais folded in an attitude of natural 
sleep. His expression was serenity itself. The doctor 
was sure that the Colonel had not suffered, but had passed 
painlessly away. 

How far he was from feeling any foreshadowing of 
the end was shown by a letter received on the day of his 

375 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

death by a meeting of the Independent Citizens' Commit- 
tee on Welcoming Returning Soldiers, of which he had 
been elected honorary chairman. It was written by his 
wife and said : 

''Rheumatism has invaded Mr. Roosevelt's right hand 
and he wants me to write that he has telegraphed his 
acceptance. This is to assure you that he ^vi\\ be at your 
call by springtime. ' ' 

Funeral at Oyster Bay 

The simplest obsequies ever accorded a man of great 
public distinction were those of Theodore Roosevelt. 
This was in accordance with his own expressed desire, 
and his wishes were faithfully carried out by his family 
and friends. Thus in his death he once more gave the lie 
to those who had ignorantly charged him with ostentation 
and an uncontrollable desire for the limelight. In his 
death and the chosen manner of his burial, he was as sim- 
ple and sincere as he had ever been in life to all who 
really knew him. 

There was no lying-in-state, no eulog>' over his grave, 
no special music and no honorary pallbearers at his 
funeral. He was laid away with the simplest rites of 
Christian burial. But as that simple funeral took place, 
a hush fell over the land. The wheels of industry were 
stopped and men stood bareheaded on the street in cities 
from Maine to California, in honor of him who was being 
laid to rest. 

The funeral took place on the afternoon of Wednes- 
day, January 8, 1919, two days after the Colonel died. 
In a casket wrapped with the American flag, the body was 
first taken to Christ Church, Oyster Bay, for a brief 
ser\dce, and was then interred in the Youngs' Memorial 
Cemetery, in a grave near the summit of a steep hill 

37€ 



DEATH AND BURIAL 

which looks out on Oyster Bay Cove and across the cove 
to the Roosevelt home on Sagamore Hill. 

Service in the Home 

At noon the Roosevelt family and very close friends of 
the Colonel gathered in the trophy room, where the 
master of Sagamore Hill had delighted visitors from 
many lands with his inimitable accounts of how he came 
by the treasures that were there stored. The group 
assembled for this first intimate service numbered about 
seventy-five. Mrs. Roosevelt was present, but did not go 
to the church or cemetery. The rector of Christ Church. 
Rev. George E. Talmadge, who has had the Oyster Bay 
parish for eight years and whose fondness for the Colonel 
was reciprocated, read a few simple prayers and then the 
Ninety-first Psalm, beginning : 

"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High 
shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. ' ' 

Procession to Church 

In a few moments this part of the ceremonies was 
ended. Closed automobiles were waiting, when the coffin 
was carried out to the motor hearse. Into the first step- 
ped Mrs. Nicholas Longworth and Mrs. Richard Derby, 
the Colonel's daughters; his sister, Mrs. Douglas Robin- 
son ; Mrs. Archibald Roosevelt, wife of the Captain, and 
Mr. Longworth. The chauffeur was the negro, Charlie 
Lee. Capt. Roosevelt and Theodore Douglas Robinson, 
nephew of the former President, had gone on to the 
church to take charge of the seating arrangements. 

Snow had been falling since dawn in great, slow 
settling flakes that gave promise of an early clearing. As 
the procession turned into the Cove road from Sagamore 
Hill the first real sunlight of the day appeared. As the 

377 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

cars moved toward town, in front rode Capt. Edward 
Bourke of the New York Police Department who, accord- 
ing to tradition, won the then Police Commissioner Roose- 
velt's attention when Bourke shouted " Gangway!" one 
morning when the Commissioner entered headquarters. 
The Colonel asked Bourke if he hadn't been a sailor. 
Bourke had indeed. He had been in the United States 
Navy. Roosevelt pushed him along in the Department, 
and the two became fast friends, as anyone may read in 
the Colonel 's autobiography. 

Bourke on horseback cantered ahead of the proces- 
sion, and on either side of the hearse were three other 
giants of New York's mounted police, who with their 
captain formed the escort of honor. 

While the cortege was approacliing the ^^llage over 
the two miles or so of road skirting the Cove between 
Oyster Bay and Sagamore Hill, twenty-five New York 
policemen, not one less than six feet tall and some tower- 
ing to six feet five, formed a line around the church. 
Service in Christ Church 

Christ Episcopal Church, where the funeral service 
was held, was founded in 1705 and rebuilt in 1878. It 
was the church which the Colonel and his family usually 
attended when at home, there being no Dutch Reformed 
Church in the village and Mrs. Roosevelt being an Episco- 
palian. The church would accommodate less than 500 
persons, so that admittance for the funeral was by card 
only. The cards were issued from the Colonel's New 
York office, at 347 Madison Avenue, and were given only 
to relatives and close friends. 

Seated side by side in the first pew of the church were 
the representatives of the army and na%^ — General Pey- 
ton C. March and Admiral Cameron McR. Winslow — with 

378 



DEATH AND BURIAL 

their hands resting on the hilts of their swords, from 
which hung knots of crepe. Vice-President Marshall, 
representing President Wilson and the Government of 
the United States, was in the front of the church, where 
also were seated the members of the Congressional dele- 
gation, old political friends and old political foes of 
Colonel Roosevelt, equally anxious to do honor to his 
great memory. The pews were filled, the sides of the 
church were lined with men and women standing, and 
small rooms communicating with the nave of the church 
held those for whom room could not be otherwise 
provided. 

The church was decorated with laurel which had been 
left since Christmas. 

Though the family had requested that no flowers be 
sent, the friends would not be denied that sad privilege, 
and the chancel w^as covered w^ith floral pieces. One of 
these was a wreath of pink and white carnations sent in 
accordance with cable directions from President Wilson. 
A large wreath in the foreground bore a wide ribbon 
marked ''United States Senate" in gold letters. A bunch 
of pink and white carnations was sent by the officers of 
the battleship Indiana. A piece made of heather, pink 
roses, and violets came from a Japanese organization, 
the Osaka Osahe. The American Historical Association 
of Washington sent a cluster of liHes. Orchids, violets, 
and peach blossoms came from the Republican National 
Committee. Floral pieces came also from the American 
Defense Society, the Camp Fire Club of America, the 
National Institute of Arts and Letters, the American 
Academy of Arts and Letters, the Boone and Crockett 
Club, and other organizations. 

As the church began to fill there was interest in 

379 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

another decoration of the rear wall of the edifice of which 
Colonel Roosevelt was particularly proud — two sheets of 
foolscap, under glass, on which were written with pen and 
ink the names of ninety-eight members of the parish who 
had entered the national service, the first four names 
being Roosevelts, and the one name of the ninety-eight 
distinguished by a gold star being that of Quentin 
Roosevelt. 

Allied Nations Send Delegates 
When the church liad filled many were in uniform 
besides the official representatives of the army and navy. 
There were officers present in British and French uni- 
forms, and most of the nations of the Allies were repre- 
sented by military or diplomatic delegates. 

Captain Archibald Roosevelt, thin, very pale and only 
partly recovered from his wounds, wearing the Croix de 
Guerre and two other medals on his breast, moved up and 
down the center aisle of the church, acting as usher. He 
gave a respectful military salute when the official repre- 
sentatives of the nation arrived and took them to their 
seats. He saluted and gripped the hand of ex-President 
Taft. Others who acted as ushers were William Loeb, 
Jr., Theodore Douglas Robinson, and Representative 
Nicholas Longworth. 

Just before the service began the sun broke out for 
the first time during the day. During the morning the 
snow fell so thickly as to make fl>4ng impracticable and 
the airplane watch over the Roosevelt home was discon- 
tinued. At about noon the snowfall ceased, but the slcy 
remained overcast. At 12:50 o'clock, just three minutes 
before the service began, however, rays of sunlight fell on 
the stained glass windows, lessening the gloom in the 
church and touching it here and there with faint glows of 
purple, yellow, and ruby. 

380 



DEATH AND BURIAL 

Arrival at the Church 

The funeral party from Sagamore Hill arrived seven 
minutes before 1 o'clock. Reciting the words of the pro- 
cessional, beginning, ' ' I am the resurrection and the life, 
saith the Lord," the rector. Dr. G. E. Talmadge, walked 
up the aisle, preceding the coffin, carried by six men. The 
coffin bore the American flag and upon that a wreath and 
two banners, the regimental standard of the Rough Riders 
and the national standard of the Rough Riders. The 
wreath was the gift of the members of Colonel Roose- 
velt's famous regiment who were in attendance at the 
funeral. It was of bronze laurel, intertwined with a rare 
acacia, the yellow being the cavalry color. 

In clear tones the rector read the service, while the 500 
persons in the church, Americans and foreigners, whose 
mourning symbolized that of the United States and of 
the allied nations, sat with grave faces. Some of the 
devoted admirers of Colonel Roosevelt could not control 
themselves and covered their faces mth their hands. It 
was plain that only the simplicity and formality of the 
service made it possible to go through with it without an 
outburst of uncontrollable grief. Had there been a 
eulo^, the feelings of the men and women in the church 
would have broken all bounds. 

The first variation from the ritual order for the burial 
of the dead was the reading by Dr. Talmadge of the hymn, 
''How Firm a Foundation," which was Colonel Roose- 
velt's favorite, and the following prayer attributed to 
Cardinal NeAvman : 

O, Lord, support us all the day long of this troublous life, 
until the shadows lengthen and evening comes and the busy world 
is hushed and the fever of life is over and our work is done. 
Then of Thy great mercy grant us a safe lodging and a holy rest 
and peace at the last, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. 

381 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
How Fiirm a Foimdatloii. 



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Colonel Roosevelt's Favorite Hymn, with Two Tunes to Which It Is Sung. 

382 



DEATH AND BURIAL 

An Affecting Incident 

In one other respect the service in the church differed 
from the expected. That departure was a glowing thing, 
distinguishing the formalities of this service from 
all others, as the man who lay there was distinguished 
among men. When the moment for the benediction 
arrived, the Rev. Dr. Talmadge advanced in the chancel 
and raising his hands uttered the name ''Theodore!" 
He looked straight at the sealed coffin and seemed to be 
speaking to the one who lay therein. 

"Theodore," he said, "the Lord bless you and keep 
you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be 
gracious unto you ; the Lord lift up his countenance upon 
you and give you peace, both now and evermore. Amen." 

These words, omitting the salutation, are found in the 
Book of Common Prayer. The minister of Christ Church 
had adapted them to this occasion, and in so doing had 
transfigured them. The effect was most stirring. 

The congregation rose then as the bearers lifted the 
coffin and carried it down the aisle. Into the silence 
broke the tolling of the church bell. Each clang of the 
hammer was echoed by the answering bell in the steeple 
of the Presbyterian Church nearby. Thus the former 
President was borne to the portico. 

Those in the church moved slowly outside into a clear 
space about the edifice which had been drawn by the New 
York traffic policemen. 

Up and down the street, outside the police lines, were 
from 3,000 to 4,000 men, women, and children of Oyster 
Bay and visitors from New York and elsewhere. 

Representative Joseph G. Cannon of Illinois, with his 
head bowed, walked out of the church in the Congres- 
sional delegation near Champ Clark, Speaker of the 

383 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSE\'ELT 

House of Representatives, who also appeared much 
affected. Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior, 
and an old personal friend of Colonel Roosevelt, wore an 
expression of deepest grief. Some of the other official 
representatives at the funeral were Governor Alfred E. 
Smith of New York State, Admiral Albert Gleaves, Gen- 
eral Louis Collardet and Captain Christian Pierret of 
the French Mission to this country, Assistant Secretary 
of State AVilliam Phillips, and Mayor Hylan of New 
York City. 

The members of the Senate delegation were Senators 
Lodge of Massachusetts, Calder of New York, Knox of 
Pennsylvania, Kellogg of Minnesota, Poindexter of 
Washington, Curtis of Kansas, Hardwick of Ohio, Cham- 
berlain of Oregon, Smoot of Utah, Phelan of California, 
Henderson of Nevada, Gay of Louisiana, King of Utah, 
Martin of Kentucky, New of Indiana, and Sutherland of 
AVest Virginia. 

The members of the House committee included 
Speaker Clark, Representatives Sherley of Kentucky, 
AYebb of North Carolina, Flood of Virginia, Dent of Ala- 
bama, Sherwood of Ohio, Padgett of Tennessee, Stedman 
of North Carolina, Estopinal of Louisiana, Riordan of 
New York, McAndrew of Illinois, Gallivan of Massa- 
chusetts, Smith of New York, Mann of Illinois, Fordney 
of Michigan, Gillett of Massachusetts, Volstead of Minne- 
sota, Cooper of Wisconsin, Kahn of California, Butler of 
Pennsylvania, Mott of New York, Hicks of New York, 
Chandler of New York, Cannon and Rodenburg of Illi- 
nois, and Bowers of West Virginia. 

Scene in the Cemetery 

Standing in the snow, among the bare locusts and 
green cedars about the grave was a small group of rela- 

384 



DEATH AND BURIAL 

tives and intimate friends of Colonel Roosevelt, some 
of the nation's greatest and most honored public men, 
and a number of boys and girls from the Oyster Bay Cove 
School, three or four of them negro children. 

The automobiles, which had come a mile and a half 
from Christ Episcopal Church to the cemetery, stopped 
at the gate of the cemetery on the Oyster Bay Cove road, 
a few feet from the water's edge. The narrow road into 
the cemetery was too steep and rough for automobiles. 
Senators and Representatives in Congress, members of 
the Rough Riders, relatives of Colonel Roosevelt, and 
intimate friends therefore climbed with the children of 
the village up the hillside and stood with bare heads. 

The sun, which, after a morning of snow, had come out 
of the clouds just before the body was carried into the 
church, was still shining when the simple burial service of 
the Episcopal Church was held at the grave. Snow was 
melting and falling from the locusts and evergreens which 
form a thick grove about the plot which Colonel Roosevelt 
had selected as his last resting-place. 

Ex-President William Howard Taft, the picture of 
grief, stood near the grave, with his head bent forward 
and tears in his eyes. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, who 
appeared hardly able to command himself, stood a short 
distance away. Senator Chamberlain, who was between 
them, seemed almost equally affected. Some less famous 
men among Colonel Roosevelt's intimates were sobbing 
like children. His two daughters were overcome with 
grief. Mrs. Roosevelt was not present, and did not leave 
the home after the service of prayer which was held there 
for the family. 

Major-General Leonard Wood, w^ho had come from 
Camp Funston, Kansas, on receiving the unexpected news 

385 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

of his friend's death, had arrived during the morning 
and stood with the members of the Roosevelt family. 

The members of the family stood on ground up the hill 
from the grave, which was in sloping ground. The Con- 
gressional delegations, representatives of national organi- 
zations, and old friends were ranged among trees on the 
slope and below the grave. The circle was completed by 
the line of school children. 

The earth, which had been removed for the concrete- 
lined grave, was concealed by flowers. The oak coffin, 
partly covered by the flag, rested on four rough finished 
boards, on each side of the opening. 

Sorrovnng Group About the Grave 

In the group about the grave were men who had first 
put Colonel Roosevelt forward prominently in the State 
and nation. One sorrowful old man was Joseph Murray, 
the Repubhcan leader of the Twenty-first District in 1881, 
who first induced Theodore Roosevelt to run for office 
and of whom the Colonel wrote in his autobiography: 

*'It was not my fight, it was Joe's; and it was to him 
that I owe my entry into politics." 

The man who brought him into his first great national 
prominence was Senator Lodge, of whom Colonel Roose- 
velt said in the same volume : 

''In the spring of 1897, President McKinley appointed 
me Assistant Secretary of the Navy. I owed the appoint- 
ment chiefly to the efforts of Senator H. C. Lodge of 
Massachusetts, who was doubtless actuated mainly by his 
long and close friendship for me, but also — I like to 
Ijelieve — by his keen interest in the navy." 

Others about the grave were among the most dis- 
tinguished men in the nation as artists, authors, explorers, 
scientists, and men who bad stood in various relations to 

386 



DEATH AND BURIAL 

Colonel Roosevelt; college friends, hunting and fishing 
friends, sparring partners, policemen, and priests. One 
man who came to the funeral at the express msh of Mrs. 
Roosevelt was Father J. J. Curran of Wilkes-Barre, who 
aided Colonel Roosevelt in settling the anthracite coal 
strike in 1902. 

''I came," said Father Curran, ''to pay my tribute to 
the best man that ever lived." 

Schools and shops were closed in Oyster Bay during 
the funeral, and most business places and some residences 
were hung with crepe. Many persons in the village wore 
buttons bearing the picture of Colonel Roosevelt over a 
bit of crepe or black ribbon. 

The grave was guarded after the burial by young men 
of Oyster Bay, recently discharged from the service of 
the nation, who patrolled the cemetery in their uniforms. 
They were under Lieutenant C. T. Reynolds of East 
Norwich. 

Youngs* Memorial Cemetery 

''The Youngs' Memorial Cemetery, at Oyster Bay, 
where Theodore Roosevelt is now taking his long sleep, 
has an especial interest to me because I was in college 
for two years at Cornell with William Jones Young," 
said Julius Chambers, in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 

"When the Cornellian Council was organized, five 
years ago, he and I were chosen life members thereof to 
represent our respective classes. 

"Meantime, each of us had had experience with the 
Avorld. He emerged from the practice of law in 1899, as 
Governor Roosevelt's private secretary, after which he 
became a United States District Attorney, with an office 
in Brooklyn. 

387 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

''The heretofore purely local burial place at Oyster 
Bay vdW now become a world-wide shrine, to be visited by 
those who reverence the name of the great American 
buried there. 

''I sincerely hope that a tall shaft, visible from many 
points of vantage, will some day surmount the hill upon 
which is the Roosevelt grave. Other monuments will rise 
in his honor at many places in this land ; but Oyster Bay 
is the site for the real testimonial of national affection 
and pride. 

**He chose to rest with the people of his own com- 
munity, among whom he had passed much of his life — his 
townfolk, who knew him better than other friends and 
universally respected and loved him. 

''Mount Vernon, Springfield, Oyster Bay — sacred to 
the memories of Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelt!" 
Theodore Roosevelt's Will 

The last wdll and testament of the former President 
was filed for probate at Mineola, N. Y., on January 11, 
1919. While the value of the estate was not disclosed, 
it was estimated to exceed $500,000. 

The income of the estate was bequeathed to Mrs. 
Roosevelt, who was authorized to dispose of the principal 
to the children in any way she desires. 

A trust fund of $60,000 left to Col. Roosevelt by his 
father was divided among his children. 

To Mrs. Nicholas Long^vorth, who was Alice Roose- 
velt, the Colonel left ''all the silver given as wedding 
presents on my marriage with her mother," who was Miss 
Alice Lee of Boston when she became Theodore Roose- 
velt's wife. She died in 1884. The rest of the family 
silver was di\aded among the other children, Mrs. Ethel 
Derby, Theodore, Jr., Archibald, and Keiinit. 

388 



DEATH AND BURIAL 

The executors, Theodore, Jr., Mrs. Roosevelt, and 
George Emlen Roosevelt, were authorized to sell or dis- 
pose of all real or personal property held by them and to 
change the investments whenever they please without 
being held responsible "for any losses arising there- 
from. ' ' 

The mil directed that the executors should not be 
required to file an inventory of the estate, and authorized 
them to sell and partition any of his real and personal 
property and allot the same to the several legatees as 
provided by the will. 

Prank Harper of Oklahoma City, Okla., and George 
Douglas Wardrop of New York, witnessed the document. 

The ColoneFs Last Letter 

Major E. J. Vattman, who was ranking Roman 
Catholic chaplain with the United States Army when he 
was retired fourteen years ago and who for years before 
that had enjoyed the fullest friendship and confidence of 
Colonel Roosevelt, could not hold back the tears when 
news of the Colonel's death reached him in Wilmette, 111. 

Almost before he had recovered his self-possession 
the noon mail was placed before him. A familiar envelope 
topped the pile. Major Vattman 's hand trembled as he 
reached for it. 

''How can I believe him dead?" he asked. "His 
friendship lives for me still." 

Here is the Colonel's letter to the venerable chaplain 
— one of the last he Kved to write and almost certainly 
the last to reach Illinois : 

"Dear Mgr. Vattman: Mrs. Roosevelt and I were 
really very much impressed by Father Garecbe's poem, 
'The War Mothers.' 

389 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

"We value the book for its own sake, and we value it 
especially because it comes from you. 
''With all good wishes, 

* * Gratefully yours, 
''Theodoee Roose\t:lt." 

Pension for Mrs. Roosevelt 

On January 20, 1919, the Committee on Pensions of 
the House of Representatives, to whom was referred a 
bill granting a pension of $5,000 per annum to Mrs. Edith 
Carow Roosevelt, widow of the former president, unanim- 
ously approved the bill, and adopted as its report the fol- 
lowing letter of Hon. Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the 
Interior, to whom the bill was referred for comment, 
"because it constitutes one of the most beautiful, fair, 
and just tributes to the life and character of the late Col. 
Theodore Roosevelt which could be written:" 

Department of the Interior, 
"Washington, January 20, 1919. 

My Dear Mr. Key : I have your letter of January 14, submit- 
ting for my consideration H. R. 13879, in which it is proposed 
to provide a pension of $5,000 per annum for Mrs. Edith Carow 
Roosevelt and asking that the committee be informed as to "what 
widows of ex-Presidents of the United States have been allowed 
pension by means of a special act of Congress and the amounts 
of the pension in each instance." I find that it has been the 
pleasure of Congress to provide a pension of $5,000 per year for : 

Sarah Childress Polk, widow of James K. Polk. 

Julia Gardner Tyler, widow of John Tyler. 

Mary Lincoln, widow of Abraham Lincoln. 

Julia Dent Grant, widow of U. S. Grant. 

Lucretia R. Garfield, widow of James A. Garfield. 

Ida S. McKinley, widow of William McKinley. 

Your letter also suggests that I am at liberty to make other 
comment tlian a mere formal report upon the proposed bill. I 
would gladly avail myself of such an opportunity if I thought 
that any word that I could say would add to the strength of the 
sentiment that urges the passage of this measure. The impress 

390 



DEATH AND BURIAL 

that Theodore Roosevelt's personality has made upon the world 
does not, however, need emphasis. Whatever his fame as a 
statesman, it can never outrun his fame as a man. However 
widely men may differ from him in matters of national policy, 
this thing men in their hearts would all wish, that their sons 
might have within them the spirit, the will, the strength, the 
manliness, the Americanism of Roosevelt. He was made of that 
rugged and heroic stuff with which legend delights to play. The 
Idylls and the Sagas and the Iliads have been woven about men 
of his mold. We may surely expect to see developed a Roosevelt 
legend, a body of tales that will exalt the physical power and 
endurance of the man and the boldness of his spirit, his robust 
capacity for blunt speech, and his hearty comradeship, his live 
interest in all things living — these will make our boys for the 
long future proud that they are of his race and his country. 
And no surer fame than this can come to any man — to live in the 
hearts of the boys of his land as one whose doings and sayings 
they would wish to make their own. 

Cordially, yours, 

Franklin K. Lane. 
Hon. John A. Key, 
Chmrman Committee on Pensions, House of Representatives. 

The bill was passed unanimously by both the House 
and the Senate. 

Theodore Roosevelt's devotion to his country above 
all else was never more courageously shown than in the 
statement he issued July 17, 1918, upon receiving the 
news of his son, Quentin's, death in an aerial combat 
in France. 

Colonel Roosevelt said: 

* ' Quentin 's mother and I are very glad that he got to 
the front and had the chance to render some service to 
his country and to show the stuff there was in him before 
his fate befell him. ' ' 

General Pershing, verifying the report of Quentin's 
death, wired the Colonel : 

' ' You may well be proud of your gift to the nation in 
his supreme sacrifice." 

391 



A Square Deal for the Men at the Front. 



By Tnpx)DORE 

We should show our respect for the 
men at the front by more than mere 
adulation. They arc tl;e Ainerlcans who 
have done most and suffered most for 
this country It was announced in the 
presi that in many cases they and the 
families they have {eft behind have not 
for months received their full pay TLls 
is an outrage. All ciTil officials are 
paid. The Secretary of War is paid and 
hft CQght not to touch a dollar of bi> 
salary end no hlsh official should tonch 
a dollar of his saJury until the enlisted 
men and Junior officers are paid every 
cent that is owing to them, and thfs pay- 
ment sbould bo prompt. There is liter- 
ally no excuse for even so mucb as three 
days^ delay in the payment. 

Moreover, these men at great coat to 
themselves in paying everything tnclud- 
iag. tn fifty or sixty thousand cases, 
their lives, have gone to the front at a 
wage from one-half to one-fifth as great 
As that their companions who stayed be- 
hind have received during the same 
period. They enlisted to do a specific 
)ob They made the saoiflco In order 
to do that iobk We on our side shotUd 
eee that ]ust as eoon as the ]ob is done 
tho men aro taken home, allovred to 
leave tha army and begin earning their 
llvellbooj and take care of the wives 
and children that the married ones 
among them baTa left behind 

Recently in tbc public press there 
have appeared various artless and chatty 
staiemonta from the Slate. War and 
Navy departments that our men might 
be feept in Europe to do general police 
wori and might not be brought back 
hero until the Bummer of 1920 There 
are three tj-pcs of soldiers On the other 
slda Theroare tbe^ReguIar Army men. 
who have entered the Regular Army as 



Roosevelt 

a profession, and to whom it is a matter 
of indifference whether they stay in En- 
rope, come back be-e. fo to the Phlllp- 
plnes^or do anything else. That is a 
small proportion of our fvce on the 
other side The bulk are dlrtded be- 
tween volunteers, who enlisted in tho 
National Guard or sometimes in the 
regular regiments to fight this war 
through, and the drafted men who were 
put into the army nndpr a law designed 
to meet this war and this war only Not 
one In ten of the volunteers would have 
dreamed of volunteering to do police 
work in European squabbles Not ten 
congressmen would have voted for the 
Draft Law If it was to force selective 
men to do police duty after the war was 
over All these men went In to Gght 
this war through to a finish and then 
to corns home It (s not a square deal to 
follow eny other (»urse as regards them. 
The minute that peace comes every 
American soldier on the other sido 
should be brought home as speedily as 
possible save, of course, the regulars 
who make the Regulcr Army their life 
profession, anil any ether man who 
chose to volunteep to go over, or who 
can with entire propriety he used for 
gathering up the loose ends. The Amcrl. 
can fighting man at the from has S'ven 
this country a square deal during the 
war Now let the country give him a 
square deal by letting bim get out ot 
the army and go to his home as soqd as 
the war Is finished The Red Cross has 
done wonderful work in taking care ot 
the dependents of these men pending set- 
tlement by the government, but the gov- 
ernment should not be content to rely 
on any outside organization to make up 
Us own shortcomings 



tCopfTitXl. 1913. Tit Saniu f«j Star \ 



392 



CHAPTER XXIII 
A WORLD IN MOURNING 

Messages of Grief and Sympathy — Tributes by Public 
Men in Many Countries — Official Action by States, 
Cities, Courts, and Public Bodies — Autographed Ex- 
pressions of Respect — A Special Day of Tribute to 
Theodore Roosevelt's Life and Memory. 

From far and near, when Roosevelt died, there came 
the tributes of all classes of men and women. There was, 
in fact, such an outpouring of mingled eulogy and regret 
that it seemed as if all who had known him in life hastened 
to show their appreciation of his patriotic career and 
services to America. Even many of those who had been 
arrayed against him in politics, and some who had been 
counted among his avowed enemies, joined the chorus of 
world-wide sorrow at his death and praise of his virtues, 
lajdng their tributes upon the bier of the great American 
-svith unstinted recognition of his patriotism and a sin- 
cerity that was unmistakable. 

In almost every expression there seemed to be a 
mingling of the sense of personal loss with that of irre- 
parable loss to the nation and to humanity. And those 
whose sympathy and regret found public expression in 
the press were but a part of the many that voiced similar 
sentiments in every community in the land. Popular and 
beloved as Theodore Roosevelt was in life, it was only 
after his death that it could be fully realized how deeply 

393 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

he was enshrined in the hearts of his fellow-countrymen. 
There was no discord in the chorus of regrets at his pass- 
ing and tributes to his hfe of service. 

Only a few of these tributes of public men and women 
can be reproduced out of the great mass of laudatory and 
regretful expressions, but the most significant and repre- 
sentative appear below. 

Proclamation by the President 

The following proclamation was cabled from Paris by 
President Wilson and issued at the State Department : 

Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America. 

A proclamation to the people of the United States: 

It becomes mj sad duty to announce oSiciaJly the death of Theodore 
Eoosevelt, President of the United States from September 14, 1901, to 
March 4, 1909, which occurred at his home at Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, 
N. Y., at 4:15 o'clock in the morning of January 6, 1919. 

In his death the United States has lost one of its most distinguished 
and patriotic citizens, who had endeared himself to the people by his 
strenuous devotion to their interests and to the public interests of his 
country. 

As President of the Police Board of his native city, as member of the 
legislature and governor of his state, as civil service commissioner, as 
Assistant Secretary of the Navy, as Vice President, and as President of 
the United States, he displayed administrative powers of a signal order 
and conducted the affairs of these various offices with a concentration of 
effort and a watchful care which permitted no divergence from the line 
of duty he had definitely set for himself. 

In the war with Spain he displayed singular initiative and energy and 
distinguished himself among the commanders of the army in the field. As 
President he awoke the nation to the dangers of private control which 
lurked in our financial and industrial systems. It was by thus arresting 
the attention and stimulating the purpose of the country that he opened 
the way for subsequent necessary and beneficent reforms. 

His private life was characterized by a. simplicity, a virtue and an 
affection worthy of all admiration and emulation by the people of 
America. 

In testimony of the respect in which his memory is held by the Govern- 
ment and people of the United States, I do hereby direct that the flags of 

394 



A WORLD IN MOURNING 

the White House and the several departmental buildings be displayed at 
half-staff for a period of thirty days, and that suitable military and 
naval honors, under orders of the Secretaries of War and Navy, be ren- 
dered on the day of the funeral. 

Done this seventh day of January, in the year of our Lord one thou- 
sand nine hundred an 1 nineteen, and of the independence of the United 
States of America the 013 hundred and forty-third. 

WOODROW WILSON, 

By the President. 

Feank L. Polk, Acting Secretary of State. 



By the King of England 
**The Queen and I have heard with feelings of 
deep regret of the death of Colonel Roosevelt. We had 
a personal regard for him and we always enjoyed 
meeting him. He will be missed by many friends in 
this country, to whom he endeared himself by his attrac- 
tive character and many talents." Geoege, R. L 



Canada's Official Tribute 

The following is a copy of the official message of sym> 
pathy sent to Mrs. Roosevelt on behalf of the Govern- 
ment of Canada by Hon. Sir Thomas White, Minister 
of Finance, as Acting Prime Minister in the absence of 
Sir Robert Borden, who was overseas, attending the 
Peace Conference in Paris: 

Ottawa, January 7th, 1919. 
Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, 

Oyster Bay, N. Y. 

Please accept and convey to the members of your family the 
most sincere sympathy of the Government of Canada upon the 
lamented death of your distin^ished husband who was so greatly 
admired throughout the Dominion. 

W. T. White, 
Acting Prime Minister. 

395 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

A statement given to the press on January 7, 1919, 
by Hon. Sir Thomas White on the death of Colonel 
Roosevelt was as follows : ''He was a great world figure 
of unique and commanding personality. We are all 
greatly shocked and grieved. To his widow and the mem- 
bers of his family all our hearts go out in deepest sym- 
pathy. ' ' 

Britain's Premier to Mrs. Roosevelt 
*'I am deeply shocked to have the news of your 
distinguished husband's death. I feel sure I speak for 
the British people when I tell you how much we all here 
sympathize with you in your great bereavement. Mr. 
Roosevelt was a great and inspiring figure far beyond 
his country's shores, and the world is the poorer for Ms 
loss." 

An Irreparable Loss 

''The death of Colonel Roosevelt is an irreparable 
loss to the nation. His virility and courage were a 
constant inspiration. He personified the Americanism of 
which he was the most doughty champion. He demanded 
the recognition and performance of our national 
obligation in the war. 

''Back of all that was done in the war was the pres- 
sure of his relentless insistence. In response to his 
patriotic call lay the safety of ci^ilization and in this 
hour of complete victory the whole world is his debtor." 

Charles Evans Hughes. 

396 



A WORLD IN MOURNING 

By the Chief Justice of the United States 

**Mr. Roosevelt's death brings to me a sense of deep 
sorrow, of personal loss. While he was President his 
kindly consideration never failed, and many oppor- 
tunities were afforded me for observing the highness of 
his innate ideals and his courage, all of which combined 
to make him the distinguished, not to say phenomenal, 
man he was." Edwakd D. White. 



By Senator Kellogg of Minnesota 

It is quite impossible to express the profound sorrow 
and grief which I feel as a result of the passing of Colonel 
Roosevelt. His death will be deeply mourned, not only 
by all the people of the nation, but by the civilized world. 

A most distinguished citizen, writer, soldier, and 
statesman with the loftiest ideals, his life is the finest 
example of unselfish devotion to his country, and no 
eulogy can now add to his fame. He was a great com- 
moner, who, in his heart, cherished the welfare of the 
masses of the people — a man of the most intense patriot- 
ism, who placed the advancement of humanity and the 
cause of his country above all other considerations. 

No one in either public or private life within his 
generation has exercised a greater influence for good 
upon the world than has Colonel Roosevelt. I feel his 
death as a personal loss, since it was my fortune to be 
more or less intimately associated with him during the 
greater part of his public career. 



C^is^<^i^ '^\ 




397 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

By United States Senator Weeks 

Colonel Roosevelt was a very great man, one of the 
greatest developed during the Hfe of this republic. His 
unbounded energy and versatility resulted in a vast pro- 
duction in several lines, any one of which would have 
been considered a life work for any ordinary man. The 
things which seemed to me paramount in him were his 
patriotism and greater than even that, his courage. If 
we measure men's greatness by their effectiveness on 
public thought or on individual action, he was the great- 
est man in our time, for there has never been a minute 
since the days of the Spanish War, whether in public 
office or in private life, when his words have not been the 
guide of millions of Americans. They believed that he 
was wise, far-seeing and honest in his convictions, and 
came to have reliance in the belief that what he advo- 
cated was his honest and mature thought. 




By the Governor of New York 
A Proclamation 
Theodore Roosevelt, a distinguished citizen of this 
State and known throughout the world, is dead. 

Formerly a Governor of New York State, later Vice- 
President and then President of the nation, we should 
unite in appropriate marks of respect to the memory of 

398 



A WORLD IN MOURNING 

one who for so many years was a leading figure in all 
things which had to do with the welfare of the nation. 

It is proper that official recognition of the loss of one 
of our native sons of so much prominence be fittingly 
expressed in a manner due to the character and services 
of the deceased. 

Now, therefore, I, Alfred E. Smith, Governor of the 
State of New York, do hereby order the flag placed at 
half-mast on all public buildings of the State until after 
the final obsequies. ^^^^^ E. Smith. 

By the Governor: 
George R. Vannamee, secretary to the Governor. 

By a Well-Knov^m Writer 

In his virtues and in his shortcomings, in his restless 
desire to do the good thing, in his failure sometimes to do 
it; in his energies, his ambitions; in his enthusiasm, in 
his beliefs ; most of all, in his courtesy — and, finally, in his 
splendid patriotism which made him among other things 
dedicate the fives of all the men in his family to the serv- 
ice of his country, Theodore Roosevelt was the most 
typical in his day and generation. 

Of Theodore Roosevelt living, a million different opin- 
ions were had and expressed by millions of his fellow 
countrymen. 

Of Theodore Roosevelt dead, his fellow Americans 
can have but one opinion, and that opinion I take it is 
this: The man who died today as truly died in the 
service of his country and for the love of his country as 
though he had died with a uniform on his back and a 
bullet through his brains. Ievin S. Cobb. 

January 6, 1919. 

399 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Legislative Tribute in Verse 
In the Indiana Senate on January 10, 1919, a resolu- 
tion in verse expressing regret at the death of Theodore 
Roosevelt, introduced by Senator Negley, was passed. 
The resolution was as follows: 

""Whereas, there has passed from this earth to the realm 
unknown of man — 

A heart always faithful and fearless, 

A mind of the fiber of steel, 
A soul of a patriot peerless. 

When Liberty made her appeal. 

A man who was proud of his nation; 

A man whom his nation revered ; 
A man who could rise to occasion 

When danger to nation appeared. 

A man whom the world loved to honor ; 

A man to whom monarchs deferred ; 
A man, although born to the manor. 

His voice for the masses was heard. 

A soul that could look to the morrow 

With no fear of past to betide. 
The world bowed with us in our sorrow 
When Theodore Roosevelt died. 
"Therefore, Be it Resolved, That when this Senate 
adjourns it shall adjourn, in honor of our distinguished now 
deceased fellow-American, Theodore Roosevelt, until the hour 
of 2 o'clock p. m. on IMonday, the 13th day of January, 1919." 

By Congressman Julius Kahn 

In the death of Koosevclt the country loses one of its 
most commanding figures. A man of intense American- 
ism he will fill a conspicuous place in his country's Tem- 
ple of Fame. He was broad-minded and liberal in his 
views. He respected m( n for what they were. He knew 
neither race nor creed in his dealings with his fellows. 

400 



A WORLD IN MOURNING 

He accomplished many reforms. He was fearless in 
exposing those who would contaminate American public 
life. He occupied an unique position in our country's 
history and his life will be an inspiration to countless 
generations yet to come. 




By Senator Jones of Washington 
The world has suffered a great loss in the untimely 
death of Theodore Roosevelt. He was one of the truly 
great men of the world and of this age. His tireless 
energy, intense convictions, and high courage, both physi- 
cal and moral, will be an inspiration to every young man 
struggling for success. He exemplified fully in words 
and actions the very essence of pure democracy and genu- 
ine Americanism. 




By Senator Sterling of South Dakota 

The nation now mourns the death of one of its greatest 
citizens, if not at the time the greatest. Thorough, faith- 
ful, and eminently able in all the many positions he occu- 
pied during his strenuous life, from his membership in 
the New York Legislature to seven and a half years as 
President of the United States, he is famed and honored 

401 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

today for the great and beneficent results he has accom- 
plished in each. 

One of his biographers, in speaking of his sense of 
duty, says : "Mr. Roosevelt's conception of duty ignores 
all sorts of magnificent ideals at long range and fastens 
itself upon the tasks which lie nearest his hand." 

The lesson afforded by his conception of duty is one 
for us to heed. The task has been at hand and waiting 
now since the great and fateful day when the armistice 
was signed. Its terms, together w4th the unsettled condi- 
tions at present existing, would seem to make the consid- 
eration of the terms of pcctce and of readjustment alone 
the practical, the imperative duty of the hour. 




By the President of the University of California 

*We cannot do without him. That is the first thought. 
"We need him. We never needed him more. The mar- 
velous range of his information, the variety of his experi- 
ence, liis vision, his knowledge of men, and the general 
reasonableness and moderation of his theoretical views — 
all these belonged among the things which seemed to 
make him invaluable to us. But we wanted him for more 
than all or any of these. 

In this world-overturning we wanted him for a counsel 
and guidance that should take into account all there is of 
human purpose and motive among the peoples and 
nations of the earth. He has not generally been thought 
of as a wise counselor, but he was — just as soon as he had 
a task big enough for his powers and had responsibility 

402 



A WORLD IN MOURNING 

therefor. He was at liis best as an executive, not as a 
critic. Before going out of office, however, he had regis- 
tered a vow that he would never play the role of ex-Presi- 
dent. And I think he never did. He could have been 
counselor and guide without being President. This would 
have set him at his best. 

There was only one Theodore Roosevelt. Vehement, 
virile, lovable, belligerent, courageous, noble. There will 
never be another like him. 

Benjamin Ide Wheeler. 

By the Secretary of the Interior 

The impress that Theodore Roosevelt's personality 
has made upon the w^orld does not need emphasis. What- 
ever else his fame as a statesman, it can never outrun his 
fame as a man. However widely men may differ from 
him in matters of national policy, this thing men in their 
hearts would all wish, that their sons might have \vithin 
them the spirit, the will, the strength, the manliness, the 
Americanism of Roosevelt. He was made of that rugged 
and heroic stuff with w^hich Legend delights to play. The 
Idylls and the Sagas and the Iliads have been woven about 
men of his mold. We may surely expect to see developed 
a Roosevelt legend, a body of tales that will exalt the 
physical power and endurance of the man and the bold- 
ness of his spirit, his robust capacity for blunt speech 
and his hearty comradeship, his live interest in all things 
living — these will make our boys for the long future 
proud that they are of his race amd his country. And no 
surer fame than this can come to any man — to live in the 
hearts of the boys of his land as one whose doings and 
sayings they would wish to make their own. 

Franklin K. Lane. 

403 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Proclamation by the Governor of Nebraska 

Our country confers few honorary titles upon its 
leaders; it uses few medals as symbols of outstanding 
fortitude or distinguished service. But it does deeply 
revere the memory of those whose lives and acts embod- 
ied the principles for which the blood of the nation has 
again and again been sacrificed. 

On January 6th, Theodore Roosevelt was stricken. 
The flags of the nations of the world stood at half mast 
and the heads of thoughtful people everywhere were 
bowed in deference to his passing. His was a life of excep- 
tional leadership and distinguished service to his country. 

No monument mil adequately symbolize the character- 
istics of this illustrious American, nor would it be his 
wish that such artificial effort should be made to perpet- 
nate his memory. He believed in, and loved, the senti- 
ments that were virile and real — the expressions that 
came from the heart. 

Therefore, in order that the people of Nebraska may 
unite in paying tribute to the memory of one who so well 
characterized our nation 's ideals, and in keeping wdth an 
Act of Congress, I do declare February 9, of this year. 
** Roosevelt Memorial Day" throughout Nebraska. It is 
my sincere wish that all the people of this commonwealth 
shall observe that day in fitting manner. 




Governor. 

Executive Department, State of Nebraska, January 20, 
1919. 

404 



A WORLD IN MOURNING 

By the Governor of Arizona 

Arizona has lost a real friend, America her most emi- 
nent statesman, and the world its foremost citizen in the 
passing of Colonel Theodore Roosevelt. Gifted with a 
vision accorded to but few men, he has not only forecast 
events but suggested a way to meet them. Patriotic to 
the core, he never suggested a policy for others which he 
was not willing to personally follow even to the supreme 
sacrifice. We shall miss the wisdom of his wise counsel 
and the nation will bow its head in grief that its popular 
leader has been stricken by death at a time when his 
words were eagerly awaited in connection with the settle- 
ment of the world war. It is hard, but trusting in that 
Divine Providence which doeth all things well, we say 
* ' Thy will be done. ' ' rjr^^^ E Campbell. 

By the Governor of Wisconsin 

In the death of Theodore Roosevelt, America lost a 
great man. Nature had made him brilliant, but his great 
learning and natural ability did not put him out of touch 
even with the most lowly citizen. He understood the 
problems of the masses of the people. One could disagree 
with Mr. Roosevelt and yet respect him. And I dare say 
that few Americans held the attention of their country- 
men for so many years as he. Whether we believe he was 
right or wrong we could not avoid the conclusion that he 
was at all times a good and true American. 




LIFE Oi^ THP:0D0RE ROOSEVELT 

By the Governor of California 
California is greatly shocked at the sudden demise of 
Colonel Theodore Roosevelt. He was one of xVmerica's 
greatest Presidents. He was patriotic to the core. He 
thought always in terms of America. We love our flag 
and our country all the more because of Colonel Roose- 
velt's courage, example, and intense loyalty. His name 
will go down in history with that of Washington, Lincoln, 
and Grant. Theodore Roosevelt is America's fourth 
immortal. 

Wm. D. Stephens. 

By the Governor of North Dakota 
Colonel Roosevelt was closely associated Avith this 
state, as he spent several years of his early life in North 
Dakota, and his passing occasions deep regret among his 
former associates and many friends. 

Lynn J. Frazier. 

By the North Dakota Legislature 

Be It Resolved by the Seriate and House of Representatives in 

Joint Session Assembled- 

That we, the members of the Sixteenth Legislative Assembly 
of the State of North Dakota, have learned with deep regret 
that Theodore Roosevelt, former President of the United States 
and once a resident of this state, whose pioneer log-cabin now 
stands upon the Capitol grounds, has departed from this life. 

In his years of public activity we gladly remember the 
things he gave to the nation that will be of enduring good. 

Theodore Roosevelt encouraged vigorous manhood. He 
inspired men with a desire for achievement, and was himself 
the living emlnxliment of untiring activity. 

He helped to arouse the public ooTiscienoo and to inform the 
public mind as to the social and industrial injustice of the times. 

He exercised at all times the right of full and free discus- 
sion of government affairs, upholding without restraint and 

406 



A WORLD IN MOURNING 

without fear the inherent right of the citizen to speak and 
write concerning the government, of which he is a part, what- 
ever words of commendation, censure or counsel seemed to him 
proper to the time and to the occasion. 

The exercise of these qualities confers a lasting benefit upon 
mankind, and for such attributes we desire to remember Theo- 
dore Roosevelt at this time, and to place a memorial of him upon 
the permanent records of this Legislative Assembly. 

Therefore, Be It Further Resolved: That these resolutions 
be spread at large upon the Journal of each House of the Assem- 
bly; that the Secretary of State be instructed to send one 
engrossed copy of same to the bereaved family, and that as a 
mark of respect to the memory of Theodore Roosevelt, this joint 
assembly, after retiring to their respective chambers, do stand in 
recess until 1:30 o'clock p. m. tomorrow, January 9th, 1919. 



By the Governor of Kansas 
(Telegram to Mrs. Roosevelt.) 

I am greatly shocked and grieved by Colonel Roose- 
velt's death. Permit me to extend to you my most heart- 
felt sympathy. The nation needs now as never before his 
clear insight and fearless facing of facts. The world 
mourns with you. May God comfort and sustain you. 




By the Mayor of Boston 

America and the world have lost a great citizen. It is 
a loss which must necessarily become more intimate to 
every man as time goes on. 

President Roosevelt's presence in the public life of 
our country raised public service in the United States to 

407 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

a higher plane. His service marked the transition from 
the older political standards to the newer and higher 
standards of democracy in public life. His great faith 
in our country and his loyalty to its ideals were an inspir- 
ation to everyone who came in contact with him. His 
faith in the ideals of the American people and his courage 
in asserting them brought to the new political life support 
from every direction throughout the country. 

Theodore Roosevelt was the exponent of the American 
family Ufe. He stood for its ideals and its perpetuation. 
Its homes and its citizenship ever received from him the 
most vigorous defense of its best traditions. The life of 
President Roosevelt has been a great stimulant to the 
uplifting ideals of the people of his country and in his 
death one force for higher standards ceases. 

His loyalty to and his keen personal interest in his 
friends make his loss to them a doubly severe one. 

Theodore Roosevelt will always be remembered as a 
man who lived only to serve his f ellowmen. 

Andrew J. Peters. 

By the Governor of Minnesota 

The death of Colonel Roosevelt comes as a great 
shock. It does not seem possible that a man that has 
stood out as he has for so many years is gone. America 
loses one of the greatest statesmen that it has produced. 
The world will mourn this loss of this wonderful char- 

J. A. A. BURNQUIST. 

By the Mayor-Elect of Detroit 

I believe Theodore Roosevelt did more to eliminate 
dishonesty and corruption in business and public life than 

408 



A WORLD IN MOURNING 

any other citizen in the world during the twentieth cen- 
tury. He had the strength of character and the virility 
to attract people's attention to the dishonesty of the rail- 
roads and the trusts and thereby compel corrective legis- 
lation. Even at this time he is a distinct loss to our 
country. 

James Couzens. 

By the Mayor of San Francisco 

Proclamation. 
To the People of San Francisco: 

The late Theodore Roosevelt, former President of the 
United States and one of this country's most famous 
statesmen, will be laid to rest tomorrow, Wednesday, 
January 8, 1919, in the little churchyard at Oyster Bay, 
New York. 

At 12:45 p. m.. Eastern time, or 9:45 a. m.. Pacific 
Coast time, funeral services will begin in the Oyster Bay 
church, where the late former President worshipped. 

Out of respect for the memory of this distinguished 
American and notable leader of men, I respectfully sug- 
gest that, promptly at 9 :45 a. m. tomorrow, all street car 
and other traffic stop; that municipal employes and all 
citizens in business or private life, cease work for a period 
of two minutes. Respectfully, 

James Rolph, Jr.^ 

Mayor. 
San Francisco, January 7, 1919. 

By U. S. Senator Lewis 

"The death of Colonel Roosevelt is the loss of a 
great man, of a great force, and the loss of a great benefit 

409 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

to America. Whatever differences men may have had 
with Colonel Roosevelt on party Unes, or political princi- 
ples, all must certify that his fight for cleanliness and 
integrity in public life did much to rid the nation of cor- 
ruption in public affairs. All must admit that his labors 
to force monopoly to yield to private welfare and per- 
sonal rights started this country upon the course of 
justice." 

J. Hamilton Lewis. 



By the President of the National City Bank, 
New York 

"Mr. Roosevelt's hold on the people has seldom been 
paralleled; his great courage was what the people 
admired. I do not think Colonel Roosevelt was afraid 
of anything, and I believe that of all the lessons public 
men can take from his life, the one that will be of the 
greatest value to the nation is that of courage in public 
life." Frank A. Vanderlip. 



By a U. S. Senator-Elect 

"He was the greatest American of our time. When 
others spoke ^^'ith unctuous equivocation, he spoke out; 
he dared and did when others palavered. We are his 
debtors for his tremendous labors in the regeneration 
of our public life, for the quickening of our national 
spirit, for the reanimation of our patriotism." 

Medill McCormick. 

Washington, D. C, Jan. G, 1919. 

410 



A WORLD IN MOURNING 

By the President of the American Federation of 

Labor 

I regard the death of Colonel Roosevelt as a very 
great loss. He rendered service in his time of incalculable 
benefit. I knew him for thirty-five years, in all his public 
activities. I worked with him, and even those who dif- 
fered with him conceded that his sincerity of purpose and 
high motives and his anxiety to serve the people were 
unquestionable. o r^ 

bAMUEL (tOMPERS. 

By the Governor of Pennsylvania 

Theodore Roosevelt's death is a great national calamity, I 
can think of no one man whose passing would be a greater loss. 
Now, of all times, his courage, his clear view of great questions, 
and, above all, his exalted patriotism, are needed by the Republic. 
In time of peril or in great public need our people turned to him 
for leadership and awaited his directing voice. He has typified, 
all through his life, the finest development of American citizen- 
ship. As a public figure, he has stood like a mighty fortress, 
"four square against all the evil winds that blew." 



l^^^.^f^AUul 



By Senator Calder of Nev^ York 

(Remarks in the U. S. Senate, January 6, 1919) 
As a Senator from the State in which Col. Roosevelt lived 
and as one who believed in him and followed him in his leader- 
ship in the affairs of his St-ate and the Nation, I am sure it will 
not be considered inopportune for me to say a word or two on 
this occasion. 

At the time of his death Mr. Roosevelt was the foremost pri- 
vate citizen in the world. Of all those before the public at the 
time of his greatest activity, he made by far the deepest impress 
upon our national life. 

As a citizen Mr. Roosevelt approached the ideal. His occu- 
pation was America. His relaxation was study. His pleasure 

411 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

was friendship. His family relations, too sacred to be lightly 
intruded upon, were those to which good men everj-where aspire 
and good women best understand and appreciate. 

Dead in his sixty-first year, Mr. Roosevelt will number his 
real mourners by the million. Time and history will write his 
true epitaph. But we today can record the death of a great 
American, of whom it can truly be said that while he lived mil- 
lions followed him because they believed in him as a force for 
righteousness, justice, peace, and progress, and when he died a 
whole people mourned him. 

Cardinal Gibbons: ''It was a terrible shock to me to 
learn of the death of former President Roosevelt. I had 
been intimately acquainted ^\ith him from the time he was 
elevated to the high office of President of the United 
States, and we were very dear and good friends. It is a 
terrible loss to me and to the whole country." 

Major-General Leonard Wood: "The death of my 
friend, Theodore Roosevelt, brings to me great personal 
loss and sorrow, but keen and deep as these are, they are 
but the sorrow and loss of an individual. The national 
loss is irreparable for his death comes at a time when his 
services to this nation can ill be spared. Unselfish loy- 
alty, honest and fearless criticism have always charac- 
terized the life and work of Theodore Roosevelt and he 
lived and worked always for his country's best interests. 
His entire life and work was one of service. ' ' 

Raymond Robins, first Progressive candidate for 
United States Senator from Illinois: "Mrs. Robins and 
I are shocked beyond words. Our sense of the loss of a 
statesman and leader in the nation is less keen, at the 
moment, than our grief at the loss of a loved and gener- 
ous friend. The greatest statesman of his age, the Colo- 
nel was the best loved American since Lincoln. He chal- 
lenged the conscience of America." 

412 



A WORLD IN MOURNING 

President Poincare of France: '*I am very much 
affected by the death of Mr. Roosevelt. Well do I 
remember the dignified letter which I received from him 
after the death of his son, Quentin, in which he informed 
me that he was coming to France to visit the grave of his 
son. It is distressing to me to think that poor Roosevelt 
will not have an opportunity to lay flowers on the grave 
of his heroic son. 

**The whole heart of France goes out to Mrs. Roose- 
velt in sympathy. 

"Friend of hberty, friend of France, Roosevelt has 
given, without counting sons and daughters, his energy 
that liberty may live. We are grateful. ' ' 

Colonel E. M. House (in Paris) : "I am greatly 
shocked to hear the news that comes from America. The 
entire world will share the grief which will be felt in the 
United States over the death of Theodore Roosevelt. He 
was the one virile and courageous leader of his genera- 
tion and will live in history as one of our greatest 
Presidents. ' ' 

J. J. Jusserand, French ambassador to the United 
States: **The unexpected death of one who has upheld 
all his life the principles of virile manhood, straightfor- 
ward honesty and fearlessness will be mourned all over 
the world, nowhere more sincerely than in France, whose 
cause he upheld in her worst crisis in a way that shall 
never be forgotten." 

Henry White, one of the American peace commis- 
sioners: "I have heard of Mr. Roosevelt's death with 
deep sorrow because of the loss to the nation of a great 
public servant and to myself of a lifelong friend. ' ' 

Herbert C. Hoover: "The news of Mr. Roosevelt's 
death comes as a distinct shock. America is poorer for 

413 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the loss of a great citizen, tlie world for the loss of a 
great man." 

Robert Lansing: ''The death of Colonel Roosevelt 
removes from our national life a great American. His 
vigor of mind and ceaseless energy made him a conspicu- 
ous figure in public affairs." 

William Jennings Bryan: "The rare qualities that 
won for Colonel Roosevelt a multitude of devoted fol- 
lowers naturally arrayed against him a host of oppo- 
nents, but his death puts an end to controversy and he 
will be mourned by foe as ^ye\\ as friend. He was a 
great American and made a profound impression on the 
thought of his generation. His picturesque career will 
form a fascinating chapter in our nation's history." 

Bert Leston Taylor ("B. L. T."), in the Chicago 
Tribune: "We are one of many who admired Theodore 
Roosevelt as a man and as a political force. His party 
label, 'Progressive,' was the only one we ever wore. His 
virtues were obvious, his weaknesses amiable weaknesses, 
which irritated only those who insufficiently admired his 
virtues. He was a great leader, and great leaders are 
compact of strengths and weaknesses. The good he did 
lives after him ; his frailties will not be long remembered. 
'This earth that bears thee dead bears not alive so stout 
a gentleman.' " 

Messages of Condolence 

Hundreds of messages of condolence from all parts of 
the world were received by Mrs. Roosevelt after the 
Colonel's death. Among those made pubHc were the fol- 
lowing: 

King Emmanuel of Italy: "I wish, to express to you 
my sympathy for your great grief over the death of your 
illustrious husband." 

414 



A WORLD IN MOURNING 

The President of Brazil: "I beg to present to you 
this expression of my sincere sympathy with your grief, 
which is shared by all Brazilians, whose admiration and 
respect President Roosevelt won by his generous collab- 
oration in our public life, and in friendly remembrance 
of his passing through our country." (The latter ref- 
erence was to Col. Roosevelt's exploration journey 
through South America.) 

Sir Thomas Lipton: ''Kindly accept my deepest and 
most heartfelt sympathy in the sad loss of your dear 
husband, for whose splendid gifts and qualities I have 
always had the highest admiration. I regarded him as 
one of the greatest and most representative Americans 
of all time, and the world at large is the loser by his 
untimely passing." 

Queen Maud of Norway: "Our deepest sympathy with 
you in your great trial. ' ' 

Ronald C. Munro-Ferguson, Governor-General of Aus- 
tralia: ''Deepest sympathy in your irreparable loss." 

Brigadier General S. T. Lian, attache to the Chinese 
peace delegation, en route to Paris: "I hear with pro- 
found regret of the death of Colonel Roosevelt. On be- 
half of the minister of war and the army of the Chinese 
Republic, I beg to tender sincerest sympathy in your 
bereavement." 

Senator Boise Penrose of Pennsylvania: "I am 
greatly shocked to learn of the death of Colonel Roose- 
velt. I cannot adequately express my sentiments on this 
occasion. The nation has suffered an irreparable loss. 
I extend my sincerest sympathy to you and your family." 

iS'. G. Kimher, mayor of Southampton, England: "On 
behalf of the to^^Ti of Southampton, I beg to offer the 

415 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

sincerest sympathy to you and your family in the irre- 
parable loss which you and the American nation have 
sustained." 

Former Attorney General George W. Wickershayn, 
who was abroad, cabled: "Sincerest sympathy in your 
great loss." 

Col. E. M. House: **Mrs. House shares with me tlic 
great sorrow which all Americans feel over the death of 
your distinguished husband." 

Mayor John F. Hylan, of New York: ''In this hour 
of your great bereavement, permit me to extend to you 
in the name of the people of the City of New York the 
sincere sympathy that we all feel for you. Your loss is 
shared by the entire nation." 

By a Leading Democratic Senator 

Washington, D. C, January 6, 1919. 
Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, 

Oyster Bay, Long Island, N. Y. 

I am grieved beyond expression at the news of your 
husband's death. Notwithstanding many political differ- 
ences, he was one of the men in America who stood in 
my mind for a good heart, a big heart, and a patriotic 
purpose. 

[**I meant every word of it," said Senator Williams, 
in a letter to the author three weeks later, "and I mean 
a good deal more besides. You are at perfect liberty to 
publish it all."] 

416 



A WORLD IN MOURNING 

^n mg ^atljer's Ijowse arc trtanti mansions; if it twcre 
noi B0 ^ ttJonlit Ijawc folb^ uou; for ^ go to prepare a place 
for gou. — ^oljn xiw. 2. 

The genius that can be analyzed is no genius at all. Like the whirl- 
wind, it is a law unto itself. So with the great soul whose flight from 
earth we mourn today. 

To weigh Theodore Eoosevelt, to scale his dimensions with a tape, to 
label and classify his parts, is a baffling and futile undertaking. He pre- 
sented a thousand facets to life. Packed within his tenement of clay were 
the makings of a score of average men. Eeverently lifting the veil of his 
personality we see within the statesman, the diplomat, the student, the 
hunter, the naturalist, the author, and all the others. But it is not vouch- 
safed us to see the ego, the "I am," the spirit, the bit of divinity — call it 
what you will — by which he marshaled these potentialities into one and 
hurled them like a thunderbolt. 

Nothing was too little or too big for his earnest scrutiny. Those near- 
sighted, squinting eyes which millions know and love would scan with equal 
interest the mountain and the tiny marmot which burrowed, in its flank. In 
spite of the manifold tasks and the weighty responsibilities which beset his 
public life — which was practically his whole life — he found time, somewhere, 
somehow, to read and write voluminously; to ride and hunt and shoot and 
play tennis; to hunt in Africa and explore in South America; to study the 
conifers of the Eockies and to patiently and lovingly observe the tiny 
warblers which each spring and fall fluttered and lisped about the grounds 
of Sagamore Hill. 

He had learned the golden truth that the only things on earth with- 
out interest are the things of which we are ignorant; that all the appur- 
tenances of the universe, from the tiny desert plant which runs its cycle 
of life in a fortnight to the enduring and eternal Milky Way, are but the 
exceptions of the Creator, for the instruction, uplift and salvation of man. 

Yet he was no Gradgrind. An irrepressible ebulliency silvered over 
the dullest tasks for him. He wrestled with them like a boy at play. 
Hence above all his purely intellectual or practical interests towered his 
love of Man. From this love sprang his intense hatred of injustice, of 
inequality of opportunity, of any limitation of political, social or economic 
rights. And from this love, coupled with the vision of a seer, sprang his 
instantaneous recognition and detestation of Prussian kultur, making him 
for the time as a voice crying in the wilderness. 

417 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Thus it came about that he was at once, for a season, the most-loved 
and the most-hated man, perhaps, in America. Thus it came about that 
while thousands clamored to be led by him to the cannon 's mouth, there 
were others who sought to do him to death. 

Conscious of his rectitude, aa genius always is, he acknowledged no 
bounds for the play of his tremendous energy. In the ardor of battle he 
tossed aside all eonvoHtional restraints. In season and out of season — 
as we lesser ones would say — he branded sham and pretense and greed 
and lust of power witi the red-hot iron of his righteous indignation — even 
his anger, as he himself called it. 

Yet no one was quicker than himself to recognize his mistakes. And 
who, after all, shall assume as yet to chart his orbit and measure his devia- 
tions therefrom? 

That shall be the task of men yet unborn. For the battle in which 
he enlisted is only begun. Nineteen-twelve was but the reveille. And 
1914-1918, with all its blood and horror, may prove but the skirmish. 
Today the forces of the world are gathering for the real Armageddon, and 
we may be sure that the soul of their great captain is watching them from 
his celestial aerie. 

"Many-sided," multi-angled Roosevelt! Equally at home in the 
throneroom of royalty and the bunkhouse of the plains! Comrade alike 
of the cowboy and the intellectual! Citizen of the world, champion of 
mankind! So sweet and chivalrous with women; so frank and kindly with 
men! A caress for what he loved, a blow for what he hated! 

So we call him "Teddy." A few may remember him as Col. Roose- 
velt; others as President Roosevelt. But in the hearts of his countrymen, 
as they weep today and as they recount his deeds to their children tomor- 
row, he will be ' ' Teddy ' ' — a Christian gentlemen, a faithful friend, a fear- 
less foe. 

Hequiescat in pace! 

The touching tribute reproduced above appeared in 
the Chicago Evening Post on the day of Theodore Roose- 
velt's funeral. It was from the pen of Mr. Elmore 
Elliott Parker, and was typical of the sentiments gener- 
ously expressed in the press of the United States in the 
sorrowful days that followed the Colonel's death. And 
as it was in the press, so in the pulpit — tributes of love 
and respect were poured out in unstinted measure. 

418 



A WORLD IN MOURNING 

Personal Reminiscences of Roosevelt 

By the Bight Rev. Samuel Fallows, D. D., LL. D. 

I came to know Theodore Roosevelt more intimately when 
he became Governor of New York. I had watched him with 
iatens'ist interest in his political ascent and his continually wid- 
eming influence among all classes of men. But as Governor of 
th« G.eat Empire State, I, with others, foresaw a more brilliant 
career before him, nay, the most brilliant career open to man, 

Mf son, who represented a portion of New York City as 
Assemblyman at Albany, was very close to the Governor. He 
was assisting him in the Legislature to carry out several very 
important reform measures. I went with him to call upon 
Roosevelt ; he received us both most cordially, and, putting his 
hand upon my son's shoulder, he said, "This is my right-hand 
man in my administration." When I came to leave, the pro- 
phetic instinct which I felt in my innermost nature prompted 
me to say: 

"Governor, the West will want you some day to be Presi- 
dent." 

Candidly and straightforwardly he said, without the least 
self-depreciation : 

"Well, Bishop, you know I am more of a Western man than 
an Eastern man." 

We little thought then of the mysterious way by which he 
was soon to reach the Presidency. 

We know now why those who did not love him overmuch 
and were trying to prevent his going to the White House, were 
among the foremost to urge him to become a candidate for 
Vice President. He knew their real feelings and at first was 
determined in his opposition to the idea. But his sincere friends 
were just as earnest in their fervent appeals for him to con- 
sent. Clearly they laid before him the imperative need to win 
the election. He was really to be the determining factor in the 
result. 

He said, "I will consent on that ground alone. Above 
everything else I put my country"; and thus sinking his self- 
will and laying aside whatever ambition he might have felt, 
knowdng that in all probability it meant turning his back upon 
the highest prize that his fellow-citizens could give him, he 
became the Vice President of the United States. 

Who could excel him in pushing and climbing without 
being short of breath? Who could surpass him in changing 

419 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

enemies into friends when they knew him? Only Lincoln could 
match him. 

I was witness to his marvelous i>owers of physical and 
mental endurance on his last public visit to Chicago at the 
height of the great World War. He made several short 
addresses on one of these days when among us, and at night 
spoke to nearly fifteen thousand people in the huge Dexter 
Pavilion. W^hen I made the invocation in my uniform as a 
Brigadier-General of the Civil War, with my Grand Army dec- 
orations, he called attention to the fact and, turning to the 
large number of veterans on his right, he said, "I am proud to 
have one of your number with me on this platform," and then, 
in a few impressive words he paid a glowing tribute to the 
services these heroes had rendered in our great Civil conflict. 

In the course of his address he said: "This war for me is 
an exclusive war. I have been blackballed by the Committee 
on National Efficiency, but I have three sons over there." 
Then, turning to Major-General Barry, the Commander of the 
Central Department, he said, "General, I have been Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States for 
nearly eight years. I gave you your commission as a Major- 
General. I am perfectly willing to serve under you, or under 
any other General the War Department may select. All I ask 
is that I may have the military rank I had in the Spanish- 
American War, that of a Brigadier-General." 

But it was not to be. There were already enrolled, as I 
now remember, nearly fifty thousand volunteers most anxious 
to serve under him. His great heart, as those who knew him 
intimately can testify, was sorely disappointed because he was 
not allowed to serve as he desired. 

On the following day he made a short speech after break- 
fast, and then, accompanied by several prominent citizens, pro- 
ceeded to Camp Grant at Rockford, Illinois. Twenty thousand 
soldiers were gathered in front of him to listen to his speech. 
He then went to Fort Sheridan and addressed the four or five 
thousand young men training there as officers. Then he hur- 
ried to the Great Lakes Station, and after reviewing ten thou- 
sand blue jackets made them a rousing patriotic talk. He then 
went in a special train to Racine, Wisconsin, and met an over- 
whelming audience, whom he enraptured by his appeal for an 
unadulterated Americanism. Then leaving late at night for 
Minneapolis, he was ready for the fray the next day with two 
stirring speeches, and afterwards left for Oyster Bay. 

420 



A WORLD IN MOURNING 

Almost his last notable speech in the West was at Spring- 
field, Illinois, at the Centennial exercises connected with the 
admission of the State into the Union. It was an immense audi- 
ence that greeted him in the vast enclosure in the Fair Grounds, 
stretching so far on either side of the stand as to be almost 
beyond the speaker's eye and utterly beyond the speaker's 
voice. I had been requested to officiate as chaplain and appeared 
in my uniform among my Grand Army comrades. Again he glor- 
ified, in words which those heroes who heard them will never 
forget, the immortal deeds wrought by them for the salvation 
of the Union, If the fight for that Union had not been won, 
the fight then on for the salvation of the world could not be 
gained. The central thought of that glorious address was the 
need of the united effort of all the world nationalities in this 
great State to be fused into one mighty, magnificent American 
whole. All hyphens must be consumed in the fires of that 
American patriotism, burning as never before, at white heat. 
There must be but one language and one flag in the whole 
American domain. 

These same sentiments were contained in his last unwritten 
utterances just before his unexpected translation to the higher 
service beyond. 

As member of the New York Legislature, as Civil Service 
Commissioner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Colonel of the 
Rough Riders, Governor of New York, Vice President and Presi- 
dent of the United States, as author, historian, naturalist, 
hunter, husband, father, and citizen, history will record him 
as the foremost American of his time, and one of the most 
illustrious of men in the annals of mankind. 



Memorial Services 

While many memorial meetings were held within the 
week following Colonel Roosevelt's death, a number of 
friends of the Colonel united in urging the Governors of 
all States officially to suggest that all proposed memorial 
services in honor of the former President be held simul- 
taneously on February 9, 1919, the date set for a memorial 
service in Congress. This request, telegraphed to the 

421 



LIFP: of THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

various Governors, was signed by William H. Taft, Car- 
dinal Gibbons, Franklin K. Lane, Senator John Sharp 
Williams, Senator George E. Chamberlain of Oregon, 
Senator Henrv Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, Senator 
James W. Wadsworth, Jr., and Senator William M. Cal- 
der of New York, Senator Frank A. Kellogg of Min- 
nesota, Senator Hiram Johnson of California, Senator- 
elect Medill McCormick of Illinois, Champ Clark, 
Thomas A. Edison, Charles E. Hughes, Oscar S. Straus, 
former Secretary of the Interior James R. Garfield, John 
Mitchell, and Julius Holz. 

The suggestion had the approval of Col. Roosevelt's 
family, and was generally adopted. 

Accordingly, on February 9 eulogies of Theodore 
Roosevelt were delivered at special services and meetings 
all over the land. Congress gathered in joint session 
in the House of Representatives on that day, and listened 
to a touching eulogy by Senator Lodge, the text of which 
appears in following pages. In all the great cities orators 
of distinction moved crowded meetings by their tributes 
to the former President, which the people, literally in 
millions, gathered in deep sorrow and respect to hear and 
indorse. 

Next day the press of the country was filled with 
reports of these great memorial meetings, to which the 
New York Sun, in an editorial typical of hundreds of 
others, referred as follows: 

America's tribute to roosevelt 

The tribute America paid yesterday to Theodore Roose^'elt 
was a spontaneous expression of the respect and affection this 
great man's fellow citizens felt for one whose life made tliem 
deeply his debtors. 

It was not official in its inspiration. It needed no formal 
guidance. It bore no relation to politics. It enlisted the support 

422 



A WORLD IN MOURNING 

of men of every race, of every creed, of every calling, of every 
station in life. In all its manifestations one note predominated : 
sterling, unquestioning Americanism. 

Its unanimity was amazing. Men and women with no other 
thought in common, divided on all other subjects, holding antag- 
onistic opinions, joined in praise of Roosevelt and shared their 
sorrow at his passing. 

Their sincerity was apparent not less in their acts than in the 
words they uttered. They had lost not only a leader, but a 
friend ; not merely a counsellor in good works, but a co-laborer 
for national and for individual well being. Their words were 
personal and intimate. The statesman Roosevelt did not hide or 
obscure Roosevelt the man. 

In this intimacy of feeling the hold Roosevelt had on the 
hearts of his countrymen was best revealed ; and no man without 
that hold could have called forth such a tribute as was paid by 
America to Theodore Roosevelt yesterday. 

It is manifestly impossible to do more than refer to 

some of these great gatherings and reproduce in part 

a few of the addresses made, which may be regarded as 

typical of the sentiments expressed. 



Capt. Chas. E. Merriam's Tribute 

At a memorial service for Colonel Roosevelt held in 
the People's Church, New Pantheon Theater, Chicago, 
on Sunday, January 12, 1919 (the first Sunday after the 
Colonel's death) the principal address was made by Cap- 
tain Charles E. Merriam, of the University of Chicago, 
candidate for Mayor of the city, and personal friend of 
Theodore Roosevelt, who had just returned from an 
important mission to Italy for the United States govern- 
ment. The pastor. Dr. Preston Bradley, an orator of 
silver tongue, also spoke, and the two addresses were so 
filled with interesting personal reminiscences of the Colo- 
nel that they are reproduced practically in full. Captain 
Merriam said: 

423 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

It seems only a few days ago that in the ancient city of Rome 
I talked with Colonel Roosevelt's son, Captain Roosevelt, and 
his wife, discussing with him his experience in the British Array 
on the eastern front, and his future plans and prospects. Only 
a few days later word was flashed across the wire that the son 
of Colonel Roosevelt had fallen somewhere from the clouds in 
France. It seems only a few days since I saw in the old city 
of Rome perhaps the strangest combination that great city has 
seen in all of the many peculiar combinations of persons and 
people that have come there. We had there upon one day men 
of a detachment of two hundred and fifty Czecho-Slavs on the 
Italian front ; beside them were two hundred and fifty High- 
landers with kilts and bagpipes, beside them Frenchmen from 
the Italian front, and beside them were two hundred and fifty 
Yanks from Ohio, of the 332d Regiment, and everywhere were 
Italians, and I must not forget the Belgians and the Servians and 
the Montenegrins were everywhere, too. 

The great war is over. ]\Iore than forty million men have 
taken part in it ; more than ten million will never return again ; 
another ten million will return handicapped and crippled in the 
struggle of life. , 

Now I have come back and I find here a terrific blow struck 
at our own land in the loss of one of our great leaders, our great 
statesman, a great dynamic force in American political and social 
life. And in view of my own friendship with Theodore Roosevelt 
and intimate acquaintance with him and my association with 
him, political and otherwise, for so many years. I find it difficult 
to speak coolly of what I know and what I should say. 

(Capt. Merriam then recounted his experiences with Colonel 
Roosevelt at Milwaukee, when the Colonel was shot by John 
Schrank. This portion of his address is included in a previous 
chapter. He continued:) 

It has been my pleasure not only to study Colonel Roosevelt 
at long range, but to know him intimately and to know his per- 
sonal actions and reactions, and for that reason I may, perhaps, 
undertake to say a few words about the quality of his mind and 
the quality of his ability. 

It is sometimes said that Colonel Roosevelt was a superficial 
man. That was not true. Colonel Roasevelt had one of the 
greatest minds of his time. He had the greatest faculty for 

424 



A WORLD IN MOURNING 

observing and classifying and digesting and applying informa- 
tion of any man of his day. He had an instinctive and intuitive 
faculty of reaching out and collecting facts, and then of making 
them a part of his life in some way. 

It was my fortune to meet many of the notable men of our 
time, but without disparaging any of them, for all of them are 
excellent and represent a peculiar type of ability, Roosevelt 
seemed to me to have the greatest faculty of finding out what 
he wanted to know and being able to force that immediately 
into a course of action. 

ROOSEVELT AS A NATURALIST 

If Colonel Roosevelt had specialized in one of a dozen things, 
he might there have been as great as he was in his special political 
sphere. If Roosevelt had chosen to be a naturalist, he would have 
been one of the world's greatest naturalists, for he had unusual 
powei's of sharp observation, unusual power of classification ; he 
understood plants ; he understood animals, and he had a perfect 
genius for their observation and their classification. 

HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR 

Colonel Roosevelt was a great historian and a great writer. 
If he had chosen to give thirty or forty years of his great life to 
the writing of history he would not only have been a historian 
but he would have been one of the world's greatest historians, 
for he possessed the faculty of historic inquiry ; he possessed the 
power of expression ; he possessed the judgment and the insight 
which would make it possible for him to interpret events. And it 
is generally conceded that he might have ranked high in almost 
any position that you can conceive in that particular and impor- 
tant field. 

A man in a position like Colonel Roosevelt's has to possess a 
mind that will not only dig. deeply when required, but will get a 
rounded view of things — not too much this and not too much 
that, not looking here too long nor there too long, but surveying 
the field, if necessary concentrating upon a particular point, and 
out of all, knowing something of everything and everything 
about something, be able to concentrate and work out a particu- 
lar type of policy adapted to the particular moment. In this 
Colonel Roosevelt was a master among men, and his ability in 
this field has never been surpassed. 

HIS HUMAN SYMPATHY 

Another great trait of Colonel Roosevelt's mind, a typical 
feature of his career was the astonishing range and breadth of 

425 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

his human sympathy. Not only was Colonel Roosevelt himself 
a man among men, but he intuitively liked men and undei-stood 
men of all types and of all classes and of all races, languages, 
religions; all peculiarities and all types were familiar to him 
and were understood by him. There probably never vv'as a man 
in the history of our country with a broader range of human 
sympathy and a wider range of human acquaintance. One day 
he might be entertained by an old cowboy friend, and the next 
day shake hands with a workman, and the next day talk with a 
great statesman or great lawyer, and he was equally at home 
among them all. He knew their points of view ; he understood 
their ideals; he sympathized with their purposes; he could talk 
their language. 

ROOSEVELT AND THE ANTI-JEW 

Some of you will remember what Jacob Riis told of him, the 
famous story about Roosevelt's attitude in a case involving the 
Jewish people while he was Police Commissioner of New York. 
It illustrates my point. There came to New York City a lec- 
turer who was very rabid and bitter in his denunciation of the 
Jewish people. He turned out later to be an impostor. But 
he came to the Police Commissioner and said, "Now, the Jews 
of New York are so bitter against me they will not allow me to 
speak and therefore I must have special police detailed for that 
evening." The Commissioner said to hira, "I don't believe that 
is necessary. You will not need that. Our people are orderly 
and you will be allowed to talk." Nevertheless, this man insisted 
that when he opened his lecture he must have a special police 
guard. That night when he came in to speak the house was filled 
with people. The platfonii and all around the room, as if you 
were to start here (indicating) and out all around the room was 
an unbroken line of police, a cordon of policemen, in order that 
there might be no disturbance. At first every one looked sur- 
prised at the presence of so many police, but in a second's time 
the audience laughed and the meeting adjourned. Every one 
of the policemen was a Jewish policeman! That was the end of 
his meeting, of that particular meeting, and the end of his work 
in New York and America, because ridicule did what nothing els(^ 
could have done. The joke was on him. And this intuitive under- 
standing of all and acquaintance with all types of men enabled 
Roasevelt to interpret the mind and the will of the American 
people on so many occasions when it seemed to others to be 
doubtful or unclear and uncr^-stallized. He understood the 

426 



A WORLD IN MOURNING 

American because he himself was so much an American ; he 
understood the American because he had seen so many sides of 
American life, 

HIS SELF-MADE ENERGY 

We think of Roosevelt as being a vigorous, robust and pow- 
erful person physically. He was, at the end and for many years 
of his life, but at the outset the original Roosevelt was not a 
vigorous person. He was rather inclined to be sickly and weakly. 
He was not a powerful man in his early days, but by his own 
course of discipline and by his own application he had built him- 
self up physically. He was, in the literal sense of the term, 
physically a self-made body, he built up his own body, he built 
up his own power and that amazing energy that was the wonder 
of the whole world, and having done that he realized the atti- 
tude of the powerful, but also the position of the weak and of 
those who did not have that unbounded vigor that he possessed 
in his later days. , 

He understood the life in New York City and he understood 
the life of the cowboy ; he understood the life in the army and 
on the battlefield, and he understood the life of the legislator and 
in the administrative department at Washington, and of the 
political field and the political arena. 

COMBINED THEORY AND PRACTICE 

It always seamed to me that one of the great characteristics 
of Roosevelt's career was his very remarkable combination of 
the theoretical and the practical ; his combination of high ideals, 
of what ought to be, and of practical effort and practical achieve- 
ment in that direction. This has all the more been impressed 
upon me because the first time that I ever saw Colonel Roosevelt 
was when I was at Columbia University, in 1896. At that time 
he came before us and delivered an address upon the theoretical 
and practical in politics, and he was defending himself — curi- 
ously enough, as it seemed later — he was defending himself of 
the charge of not being a practical man. He was defending him- 
self against the assertion that he was purely an idealist and did 
not understand practical methods and that was because pri- 
marily he could not bring the Police Commission of New York 
into order. This was impossible because there were two on his 
side and two on the other side, and under those conditions the 
only thing possible was war and war it was until the end. 

All through the Rooseveltian policies, all through the Roose- 
velt career you find a singular combination of high standards 

427 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

and the willingness to fight for his standard. There was noth- 
ing in Roosevelt of the cloistered or secluded philosopher, but 
there was everything in him of the willingness, first, to look upon 
your distant goal, and then fight your way toward it. He was 
willing to take the dirt and the sweat and the grime and the 
blood and the sacrifice and the toil that were necessary to reach 
the distant goal; he was not of the kind to sit and dream of 
what he would like to do and then forget to fight for it. His 
life was built not merely of battles, but also of dreams and vis- 
ions of what things ought to be. And the striking thing is that 
he never longed to go so much that he forgot to move in that 
direction. 

There are two types of people and they both have their uses 
in the world. There are those who dream and frame their dreams 
of distant futures and cease their activities with the conclusion 
of their dream, and there are those who struggle and toil and 
fight, but never lift up their eyes to see which way they are going. 
In Colonel Roosevelt America had its finest example of one who 
dreamed, but one who toiled toward the dream of his ideal. And 
it is a quality and a characteristic only too necessary and only 
too important to enforce and impress upon the great American 
people by precept and by example. 

HIS IDEA OP CIVIC DUTY 

Roosevelt, personally, of course, had a supreme contempt for 
a man who hoped for something in a public way or social way and 
would not fight for it. He had only the profoundest contempt 
for that attitude of mind which will criticize but will not work. 
He had nothing but indignation for a man who would denounce 
a government or a weakness, then would forget to vote when 
election time came. To his mind that was the highest type of 
civic treason. He felt and he taught that an education that 
leaves a man without a sense of social obligation is worse than 
nothing ; and the life that ends— a business life or social life or 
professional life — that ends without having rendered its great 
contribution of sacrifice to the common good, whatever the pin- 
nacle of fame of the individual has been, must be marked down 
in the long run as a failure. And over and over again in his 
actions and his speeches and in his writings he undertook not 
only to stir up the idealism of the American people, but to stir 
them toward effective action, of which nothing nobler in the 
world has ever been attained. 

428 



A WORLD IN MOURNING 

HIS FIGHT FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE 

Another great characteristic of Colonel Roosevelt was his 
broad view of social classes and of social questions and his will- 
ingness to meet these situations frankly and boldly as they came. 
Roosevelt was no man to mince words in the face of social dan- 
gers, he was no man to cringe or crouch before power, before 
wrong or before injustice, however great or however formidable 
it might seem. He was not afraid to denounce anarchy, whether 
it was found among those of great wealth or among those who 
had nothing at all. He was not afraid to denounce injustice, 
or wrong privileges, wherever they might be found. And in his day 
he fought all kinds of injustice, all exploitation, cruelty, privi- 
lege, wherever he might find them ; but he fought them not only 
with what might be called windy platitudes, not only by words, 
but he fought them by deeds, he fought them by practical poli- 
cies, he fought them by the organization of right-minded men 
for right purposes, and he fought them by unceasing tenacious 
struggle toward common purposes during long periods of time. 
For that he possessed a singular faculty and wonderful ability, 
and one of the greatest things that we have lost in America and 
the one thing the world has lost is this unflinching quality of 
social justice that Roosevelt possessed in so high a degree. 
Never was that quality more necessary, my friends, than at the 
present time and never were there greater problems to be worked 
out in sanity of judgment, where breadth of vision, where clear- 
ness of view and where courage and constructive power were 
more necessary than in the present day. 

We are living in a new world, the character of which we 
ourselves scarcely realize. Militarism is dead or dying; autoc- 
racy has gone forever, and the world does not weep at its tomb. 
The world has been made a safe place for democracy, and now 
the nations of the world are wondering what kind of a democ- 
racy we will develop ; and now the old ostentations of militarism 
and autocracy have gone forever, particularly is the world watch- 
ing America to see what America understands by democracy, to 
see what we understand by self-government, to see what we 
understand by liberty, to see what our interpretation of justice 
is — and what a pity it is, in these critical years, that the courage 
and the insight and the constructive power of this great leader 
are taken away from us. 

Roosevelt's great work 
It is a rash thing for any man to undertake to make an 
appraisal of the work of another man at so close a range to him 

429 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

personally and at so close a range to him historically, yet we 
may raise the question today in this memorial service : \\niat 
was the great work of Theodore Roosevelt ? It was of two kinda 
as I see it, my friends. One of his great works was his material 
constructive achievement. As Police Commissioner of New York, 
as member of the Legislature of New York, as Governor of the 
Empire State, he left his mark on a long series of detailed 
measures unnecessary to enumerate here ; and as President of 
the United States and as citizen of the world, he left his impress 
in definite waj'S, in specific measures, and in a manner that 
never can be forgotten. , 

Wliether it is the Panama Canal or whether the irrigation 
works of the West, or whether his attempt to control the gigantic 
corporate interests of the country, or whether it is the stimula- 
tion and development of the American Navy, or whether it is 
the organization of the rural life of the community, or whether 
it is his work on public health and sanitation, or whether it is one 
of the dozen other great and historic outstanding features of his 
work, these are imperishable monuments to his memory in the 
history of our country. And yet, beyond all that, he was not 
only a builder in the sense that he was a part of the constructive 
period of our history for thirty years, but more than all that, 
he was a dynamic force. , 

His work must be measured not only by what Roosevelt him- 
self did, but by what he drove others to do ; not only by what 
he did himself, but by what he inspired others to do; not only by 
what he did himself, but by what he led others to do. Roosevelt's 
hammer blow struck the civic conscience of America and he 
released untold forces of manhood and womanhood, inspired by 
the same high ideals that he had held and by the same willing- 
ness to fight for ideals for which his life had stood; and his 
work must be appraised not by what he did personally — great as 
it was, magnificent and wonderful — but by the indefinable and 
immeasurable current of life and power that he sent shooting 
through the veins of America. 

Where there was one Roosevelt, there sprang up ten thousand 
young men who followed his standard and who adopted his ideals 
and his methods; where there were ton thousand men active 
because of his work, there were millions of people who are 
inspired, influenced, directed, and encouraged by this master 
spirit of American political life. His fearlessness, his courage, 
his outspoken statements, his broad democratic methods, his high 

430 



A WORLD IN MOURNING 

ideals and his practical ability made him one of the great assets 
of American national public life; and when we lose this asset 
we have lost something that will be a long time in replacing. 
The monuments of his work will remain, but that impulse, that 
driving force, that electric energy, that superabundant ability 
that was a great inspiration to a great many millions of people, 
for the time being has been eclipsed. 

THE GENIUS OF ROOSEVELT 

All in all, America has lost a great man who rendered his 
great service in his own way. 

The genius of Washington was his military ability and that 
calm poise that made George Washington a dignified center 
around which the American union might be built. 

The genius of Andrew Jackson was his great military ability, 
and then his slashing attack upon forces that might have made 
of America something other than a democracy. 

The genius of Lincoln was his human sympathy and his great 
battle upon the system of organized privilege that held four 
million as slaves. 

The genius of Roosevelt was his constructive statesmanship 
and his immense impulse toward higher standards and higher 
ideals and keener civic conscience in America. He vitalized and 
energized his party, but not only did he vitalize and energize 
the Republican party and the great Progressive party, but he 
vitalized and energized the American people, stimulated its 
civic conscience, stirring its will to action and inspiring it to 
practical Americanization, which lies at the bottom of the suc- 
cess of this republic of ours. 

And so today, my friends, we meet to pay honor to the 
memory of a great man. Colonel Roosevelt is dead and his body 
sleeps, but let us believe, my friends, and let us make sure that 
the spirit of Colonel Roosevelt goes marching triumphantly on, 
marching on toward the highest standards of civic conduct, 
marching on toward more practical methods of their achieve- 
ment, marching on toward a broader and finer democracy in 
the social and political and industrial life of our country, march- 
ing on toward a greater and nobler America, marching on toward 
a finer type of international justice and of international order. 

Dr. Bradley's Address 

Dr. Preston Bradley spoke after Captain Merriam on 
the memorial occasion referred to above, as follows : 

431 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

I am sure, my friends, that after a speech such as you have 
just listened to, the life and character of Theodore Roosevelt 
has been so carefully and analytically given to you that there is 
not much left for me to say in a large way, but I want to give 
my little tribute to him personally. 

In 1912 Roosevelt came to Chicago, and for the first time in 
the history of national politics a man went into a great national 
convention endorsed in the presidential preference primary for 
the Presidency of the United States, and those stormy days came, 
and I stood under the balcony of the Congress Hotel and saw 
him come out in the midst of the battle and shake that clenched 
hand of his before the Michigan boulevard, black with people, 
and I heard him say again, "We refuse to try the title for stolen 
property before the judge who stole it." And I saw him that 
night walk out on the platform of Orchestra Hall while the audi- 
ence were singing, "Onward, Christian Soldiers"; and I saw 
the Progressive party born, and then the great battles of those 
months which came on, and the political life and character of 
America all changed because of those two or three days. And 
then I could see the keen astuteness of the politician and the man 
who had the best of the country at heart ; those days when the 
convention was at the Auditorium and they were waiting to 
receive word from Sagamore Hill, and word came back that he 
said "No!" And as he faced the storm of the Republican party 
of this country, when the Progressive party was organized he 
faced the storm of the Progressive party because he was loyal, 
and he refused the nomination thrust upon him and the party 
as a political organization practically died after its work had 
been accomplished and achieved. 

THE TRUE AMERICAN 

We saw all this, and then the great war came and he became 
the spokesman of our highest type of true Americanism ; and 
while there are those who criticized him for his criticism of some 
things that had taken place, there is one outstanding fact that 
stares us in the face today, and that is that after Theodore Roose- 
velt's criticisms of the administration, we noticed that the mis- 
take was not repeated. 

This service in this great church of ours, yours and mine, we 
have held to do him honor at this memorial time. I shall feel 
his loss very deeply, personally, because I loved him; loved him 
for what he was. Any man of pronounced opinions and strong 

432 



i 



A WORLD IN MOURNING 

ideals and not afraid of the common-run who have their own 
little axes to grind, — any man is bound to have enemies who is 
pronounced in his individualism. And I love Roosevelt because 
of the character of his enemies. I love him because they reveal 
the type of man that he was himself — and they love him, too. 
Why, a whole nation has forgotten politics and past battles. 

The affection in wliich he was held in the hearts of the youth 
of his country was peculiarly expressed in one of our schools 
last Monday morning when the children came to school, about 
fifty. They came in and they said, ''Teddy is dead." Forty- 
nine of the children called him "Teddy," only one said "Mr. 
Koosevelt." "Teddy," — and the fact that a whole nation and 
the world could call him "Teddy" is evidence of his more than 
superlative greatness — if there is such a thing — of heart and 
soul, of body and of mind. He was the man unafraid. And the 
finest thing I know about Theodore Roosevelt is that with him 
there was no compromise, no compromise; you can't compromise 
where great issues are involved in this world; you can't com- 
promise on questions between right and wrong in this world; 
you can't compromise where the whole destiny of a nation and 
mankind is involved. The only thing is to have what you think 
is steady loyalty and unswerving devotion around you, and do 
what you think is right, and if you have found out what is right, 
go ahead. 

"in for a bit of sleep" 

I read with tears in my eyes a letter of friends who told 
about the last night at Oyster Bay, one week ago, after he bid 
his family good-night, Mrs. Roosevelt had been alone with him, 
and his old colored servant had been with him at 11 :15 when he 
said, "Jim, will you turn out the light? I am in for a bit of 
sleep." And he never woke up. 

He has been quoted as saying that if the war had continued 
three years longer, he probably would have last every son in his 
family, for, he said, ' ' They are fighters, there is not a quitter in 
the bunch." And though there are thousands of others like him, 
yet he did lose that favorite son of the White House, Quentin, 
and he was going to let him sleep where the enemy bullet found 
him. A great sorrow was in his heart, but it was the personal 
human sorrow of separation. A great thanksgiving was in his 
life that he had been able to give a son, as you have done, per- 
haps, to the great cause of world freedom and of democracy and 
justice. 

433 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

And so, quietly and tenderly they laid him away in the little 
cemetery where you and I are going to make pilgrimages to his 
grave ; and we are going to stand there, and we are going to read 
his books and state papers, and we are going to listen once more 
to his great speeches ; we are going to do all this because a new 
day has been born to the world. The world is sick and tired of 
your petty political dreams of graft ; the world is tired of your 
narrow bigotry along political lines; a world has been re-bom. 
Freedom 's banner has been unfurled, and freed men we shall be, 
no longer to be driven and beaten by the bosses of politics; no 
longer to be corralled. Freed men, free because of the great- 
ness of such spirits as have helped to make men free. 

And in the pilgrimage of that soul released — and that body 
still carrying the bullet that Captain Merriam so dramatically 
and beautifully portrayed to you, that body will go back to the 
dust, but the soul of Roosevelt shall go marching on. And so 
I say to you and I say to him, and I say to all who loved him, 
Theodore Roosevelt, Hail and Farewell! 



In Paris and London 

While in his own land, cities and towns, the capital 
and villages united in contemplation of the former Presi- 
dent's distinguished achievements, Paris halted in mak- 
ing the world peace on Sunday, February 9, 1919, and led 
by President Wilson and Secretary of State Lansing, 
paid honor to Mr. Roosevelt at a ser\'ice in the American 
Church. In the church were other members of the Peace 
Conference and hosts of the dead President's friends and 
acquaintances. 

Great Britain showed its respect at a memorial service 
in Westminster Abbey, to which went many men promi- 
nent in the councils of the Government. It was the first 
time any man not a Briton had been so signally honored. 
In other capitals, of the smaller nations whose cause 
Colonel Roosevelt so persistently championed, similar 
services were conducted. 

434 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE OFFICIAL MEMORIAL 

Congress in Joint Session with Crowded Galleries Hears 
a Magnificent Tribute to Theodore Roosevelt from the 
Lips of Senator Lodge, His Long-Time Personal and 
Political Friend. 

The Congress of the United States paid the last and 
greatest possible official honor to the memory of Theo- 
dore Roosevelt on Sunday, February 9, 1919, which had 
been dedicated as the official memorial day throughout 
the United States. 

The huge hall of the House of Representatives was 
packed to capacity with members of the two branches of 
Congress, members of the Cabinet, the Supreme Court of 
the United States, the Diplomatic Corps, and officers of 
the Army, Navy and Marine Corps. 

Mr. Henry Cabot Lodge, senior Senator from Massa- 
chusetts, held the absorbed attention of the officials and 
dignitaries on the floor of the House and of the packed 
galleries while he laid before them the life history of 
Colonel Roosevelt. 

Senator Lodge traced the remarkable rise of the sickly 
boy through his college days, when by sheer will power he 
made himself an athlete, to the height of power and honor 
to which he rose while still a young man. In a little 
more than an hour he sketched the principal points in 
the remarkable life history of the ex-President, touching 

435 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

on his election to the New York State Assembly a year 
after his graduation from Harvard ; his life in the West 
after that ; his political activities up until the time he was 
made Ci\dl Service Commissioner and the upheavals and 
reforms he forced in that service; his record as chair- 
man of the Board of Police Commissioners of New York 
City ; the record he made as Assistant Secretary of the 
Navy; as one of the organizers of the Eough Riders; 
his administration as Governor of New York, and his 
seven years in the White House. 

Senator Lodge dwelt also on the many achievements 
of Colonel Roosevelt outside his pubhc career, paying 
the superlative tribute to him as a statesman, a public 
servant and his friend. 

"Had No Secrets from the People" 

With a firm voice throughout the Senator depicted 
the long and hard fight made by Colonel Roosevelt and 
Representative Augustus P. Gardner (Massachusetts), 
a Major in the army at the time of his death, for putting 
the United States on its guard and preparing itself for 
war. Only at this point and one other did the least trace 
of bitterness creep into the Senator's voice. Major Gard- 
ner was Senator Lodge's son-in-law. 

In only one sentence was it possible to read into the 
Senator's eulogy the least tinge of partisanship or com- 
parison of President Wilson with Theodore Roosevelt— 
when he declared that Colonel Roosevelt when President 
"had no secrets from the American people." 

Representative Nicholas Long\vorth (Ohio), Colonel 
Roosevelt's son-in-law, did not sit in the gallery reserved 
for members of the Roosevelt family. Mrs. Long^vorth, 
General and Mrs. Macauley, and Mrs. Douglas Robinson 
(the Colonel's sister) were the only representatives of 

436 



THE OFFICIAL MEMORIAL 

the family there. Mr. Longworth occupied a place among 
his colleagues of the House. 

Impressive But Simple 

The ceremonies, tremendously impressive, at the same 
time were simple in the extreme. 

Promptly at 3 o'clock Speaker Clark's gavel fell and 
the House was declared in session. Immediately 
announcement was made of the presence of the Senate 
and the Senators led by Vice-President Marshall filed in 
two by two and silently took seats in the first four rows 
at the left of the Speaker's rostrum, the Vice-President 
taking his place by Speaker Clark. Next General March, 
Chief of Staff of the Army, accompanied by Generals 
Crowder, Sei^^ert, Black and Squier, Rear Admirals 
Fletcher, Blue, Winslow and McKean of the Navy and 
Brigadier-General Lauchheimer of the Marine Corps 
were announced, and filed to their seats at the opposite 
side of the House. 

The Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the 
United States Supreme Court next were conducted to 
their seats directly in front of the rostrum. 

Announcement was then made of the members of the 
Cabinet. When it was seen that the heads of only six of 
the ten executive departments of government had seen 
fit to be present and pay this last respect to the memory 
of the former President, one of the few jarring notes of 
the solemn occasion was distinctly noticeable. Acting 
Secretary of State Polk and the Secretaries of the Inte- 
rior, Treasury, War, Navy, and Commerce took their 
seats. 

The absent Cabinet members were Postmaster-Gen- 
eral Burleson, Secretary of Agriculture Houston, Secre- 
tary of Labor Wilson, and Attorney-General Gregory, 

437 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Just before the Diplomatic Corps were ushered into 
the House, former President William Howard Taft, once 
Theodore Roosevelt's close friend and the premier of his 
Cabinet, later his political enemy, but in the last 3'ears of 
the Colonel's life again his friend, was announced. As 
Mr. Taft walked down the center aisle to the seat assigned 
him a wave of applause swept Senate and House mem- 
bers. Mr. Taft sat beside Senator Martin (Virginia), the 
Democratic Senate leader. 

Nations of Earth Represented 
Lastly, the representatives in America of practically 
every ci\T,lized nation of the world filed in and took their 
seats. 

The diplomats present were: Spain, Ambassador 
Riano ; Mexico, Ambassador Bonillas ; Japan, Ambassa- 
dor Ishii; Chili, Ambassador Mathieu; Portugal, Envoy 
Extraordinary De Alte ; Bolivia, Minister Calderon ; Nor- 
way, Minister Bryn ; Guatemala, Minister Mindez ; Swe- 
den, Minister Ekengren ; Denmark, Minister Brun ; Siam, 
Minister Karavongse. 

Other countries were represented as follows: Vene- 
zuela, Minister Dominici; Bulgaria, Minister Panaretoff ; 
Salvador, ^Minister Zaldivar; Ecuador, Minister Elizalde ; 
Colombia, Minister Ureuti ; Honduras, Minister Guiter- 
rez; Dominican Republic, Minister Galivan; Nicaragua, 
Minister Chomorro ; Paraguay, Minister Gomdra ; Neth- 
erlands, Minister Cremer; Peru, Minister Tedula; Serbia, 
Secretary of Legation Simitch; Great Britain, Henry 
Getty Chilton, Secretary of Embassy, and Sir Henry 
Babbington Smith ; Argentina, Counsellor Quintana ; Bra- 
zil, Counsellor Moreira ; Italy, Secretary of Embassy Di 
Valentine; France, Counsellor De Chambrun; Rou- 
mania. Secretary of Legation Lahocary; Panama, First 

4C3 



THE OFFICIAL MEMORIAL 

Secretary of Legation Lef evre ; Hayti, Secretary of Lega- 
tion Blanchot; China, Counsellor Yung Kwai; Monte- 
negro, Secretary of Legation Matanovitch; Uruguay, 
Secretary of Legation De Pena ; Cuba, Second Secretary" 
of Legation Brull; Smtzerland, Commercial Adviser 
OederUng; Russia, Baron Gunzburg; Belgium, Counsel- 
lor Symon ; Persia, Mr. Baabe. 

Invocation by the Chaplain 

As the diplomats took their seats the gavel in the hand 
of the Vice-President fell and the Rev. Henry N. Couden, 
the blind chaplain of the House, arose and said : 

''We are here in memory of one of the nation's noblest 
sons, a writer, a speaker, a scientist, a patriot, a soldier, 
a statesman. We respect him because he respected his 
country. We love him because he loved her people. 
We honor him because he honored and revered her sacred 
institutions and would have poured out his heart blood 
to uphold and sustain them. A Christian ever turning 
with faith and confidence to his God for strength and 
guidance — God, help us to cherish his memory, emulate 
his virtues, that we may leave a record well pleasing in 
Thy sight. 

''Let Thy kingdom possess our hearts that we may 
hallow Thy name, our God and our Father. Amen." 

The Marine Band then played one of the favorite 
hymns of the great American in honor of whose memory 
the ceremonies were held, "How Firm a Foundation." 
As the last strains of the hymn died away Vice-President 
Marshall introduced Senator Lodge, and the Senator 
immediately began his eulog}^ 

Senator Lodge's Address 

The Senator, who knew Colonel Roosevelt from the 
latter 's college days, spoke first of the effect upon the 

439 



LIFE OF TnEODORE ROOSEVELT 

world of the tidings of his death — **the cry of sorrow 

came from men and women of all conditions, high and 

low, rich and poor, from the learned and the ignorant, 

from the multitude who had loved and followed him, and 

from those who had opposed and resisted him." 

Senator Lodge continued : 

""VYe can not approach Theodore Roosevelt along the beaten 
paths of eulogy or satisfy ourselves with the empty civilities of 
conunonplace funereal tributes, for he did not make his life jour- 
ney over main travelled roads nor was he ever commonplace. 
Cold and pompous formalities would be unsuited to him who 
was devoid of atTcctation, who was never self-conscious, and to 
whom posturing to draw the public gaze seemed not only repel- 
lant but vulgar. lie had that entire simplicity of manners and 
modes of life which are the crowning result of the highest culture 
and the finest nature. Like Cromwell, he would always have 
said, 'Paint me as I am.' In that spirit, in his spirit of devotion 
to truth's simplicity, I shall try to speak of him toda,y in the 
presence of the representatives of the great Goremment of 
which he was for seven years the head. ' ' 

KEPT PEACE WITHOUT THREATS 

In sketching Colonel Roosevelt's life, Mr. Lodge said of the 
Presidential period: "Those who were alarmed about what he 
might do had also suggested that with his combative propensities 
he was likely to involve the country in war. Yet there never has 
been an administration, as afterwards appeared, when we were 
more perfectly at peace with all the world, nor were our foreign 
relations ever in danger of producing hostilities. But this was 
not due in the least to the adoption of a timid or yielding foreign 
policy; on the contraiy, it was owing to the firmness of the 
President in all foreign questions and the knowledge which other 
nations soon acquired that President Roosevelt was a man who 
never threatened unless he meant to carry out the threat, the 
result being that he was not obliged to threaten at all." 

It was the Senator's opinion that in the Panama Caoial Presi- 
dent Roosevelt "left the most enduring, as it was the most visible 
monument of his administration." 

"Much criticised at the moment for his action in regard to 
it, which time since then has justified and which history will 
praise, the great fact remains tliat th>? canal is there," Senator 

440 



THE OFFICIAL MEMORIAL 

Lodge said. "He said himself that he made up his mind it was 
his duty to establish the canal and have the debate about it 
afterwards, which seemed to him better than to begin with 
indefinite debate and have no canal at all. This is a view which 
posterity both at home and abroad will accept and approve. ' ' 

HIS GREAT PERSONAL STRENGTH 

This was the speaker's comment on the election of 1912, 
when Colonel Roosevelt led the Progressives : 

"There never has been in political history, when all condi- 
tions are considered, such an exhibition of extraordinary personal 
strength. To have secured eighty-eight electoral votes when 
his own party was hopelessly divided, with no great historic 
party names and tradition behind him, with an organization 
which had to be hastily brought together in a few weeks seems 
almost incredible, and in all his career there is no display of the 
strength of his hold upon the people equal to this." 

Coming to Colonel Roosevelt's service to the country during 
the war and the loss of his son, Quentin, Senator Lodge said: 

"He would have had us protest and take action at the very 
beginning in 1914 when Belgium v:as invaded. He would have 
had us go to war when the murders of the Lusitania were per- 
petrated. He tried to stir the soul and rouse the spirit of the 
American people, and despite every obstacle he did awaken them, 
so that when the hour came, in April, 1917, a large proportion 
of the American people were even then ready in spirit and in 
hope. 

"How telling his work has been was proved by the con- 
fession of his country's enemies, for when he died the only dis- 
cordant note, the only harsh words, came from the Gerrnan 
press. Germany knew whose voice it was that had more power- 
fully than any other called Americans to the battle in behalf 
of freedom and civilization," 

Because he was not permitted to go to Europe at the head 
of a body of soldiers, said Mr. Lodge, Colonel Roosevelt "was 
denied the reward which he would have ranked above all others, 
the great prize of death in battle. ' ' He continued : 

PATRIOT IN EVERT FIBRE 

"But he was a patriot in every fibre of his being, and per- 
sonal disappointment in no manner slackened or cooled his zeal. 
Everything that he could do to forward the war, to quicken 
preparation, to stimulate patriotism, to urge on efficient action, 

441 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

was done. Day and night, in season and out of season, he never 
ceased his labors. Although prevented from going to France 
himself, he gave to the great conflict that which was far dearer 
to him than his own life. I cannot say that he sent his four sons, 
because they all went at once, as every one knew that their 
father's sons would go. Two have been badly wounded; one 
was killed. He met the blow with the most splendid and 
unflinching courage, met it as Siward the Earl of Northumber- 
land receives in the play the news of his son's death: 

Siw. Had lie his hurts before? 

Eoss. Ay, on the front. 

Siw. Why then, God's soldier be he! 
Had I as many sons as I have hairs, 
I would not wish them to a fairer death: 
And so his knell is knoll 'd. 

"Among the great tra-gedies of Shakespeare, and there are 
none greater in all the literature of man, Macbeth was Colonel 
Roosevelt's favorite, and the moving words which I have just 
quoted I am sure were in his heart and on his lips when he 
faced with stern resolve and self-control the anguish brought 
to him by the death of his youngest boy, killed in the glory of a 
brave and brilliant youth. 

"There was no hour down to the end when he would not 
turn aside from everything else to preach the doctrine of Ameri- 
canism, of the principles and tJie faith upon which American Gov- 
ernment rested and which all true Americans should wear in 
their heart of hearts. He was a great patriot, a great man; 
above all a great American, His country was the ruling, mas- 
tering passion of his life from the beginning even unto the end. 

AS A WRITER AND SPEAKER 

"Let me speak first of his abilities. He had a powerful, well 
trained, ever active mind. He thought clearly, independently 
and with originality and imagination. These great gifts were 
sustained by an extraordinary power of acquisition, joined to 
a greater quickness of apprehension, a greater swiftness in seiz- 
ing upon the essence of a question than I have ever happened to 
see in any other man. His reading began with natural history, 
then went to general histoiy and thence to the whole field of 
literature. He had a capacity for concentration which enabled 
him to read with remarkable rapidity anything which he took 
up, if only for a moment, and which separated him for the time 
being from everything going on about him. 

442 



THE OFFICIAL MEMOEIAL 

*'He made himself a writer not only of occasional addresses 
and essays but of books. He had the trained thoroughness of 
the historian, as he showed in his history of the war of 1812 
and of the ' Winning of the West, ' and nature had endowed him 
with that most enviable of gifts, the faculty of narrative and the 
art of tlie teller of tales. At the same time he made himself a 
public speaker, and here again, through a practice probably 
unequalled in amount, he became one of the most effective in all 
our history. In speaking, as in writing, he was always full of 
force and vigor; he drove home his arguments and never was 
misunderstood. In many of his more carefully prepared 
addresses are to be found passages of impressive eloquence, 
touched with imagination and full of grace and feeling. 

"He had a large capacity for administration, clearness of 
vision, promptness of decision and a thorough apprehension of 
what constituted efficient organization. He could not have done 
all these things unless he had had most exceptional natural abili- 
ties, but behind them was the driving force of an intense energy 
and the ever present belief that a man could do what he willed 
to do. As he made himself an athlete, a horseman, a good shot, 
a bold explorer, so he made himself an exceptionally successful 
writer and speaker. 

povn'er to hold attention 

' ' His also was the rare gift of arresting attention sharply and 
suddenly, a very precious attribute and one easier to illustrate 
than to describe. This arresting power is like a common experi- 
ence, which we have all had on entering a picture gallery, of see- 
ing at once and before all others a single picture among the many 
on the walls. For a moment you see nothing else, although you 
may be surrounded with masterpieces. In that particular pic- 
ture lurks a strange, capturing, gripping fascination as indescrib- 
able as it is unmistakable. Roosevelt had this same arresting, 
fascinating quality. Whether in the Legislature at Albany, the 
Civil Service Commission at Washington or the Police Com- 
mission in New York; whether in the S-panish war or on the 
plains among the cowboys, he was always vivid, never to be 
overlooked. 

"Men follow also most readily a leader who is always there 
before them, clearly visible and just where they expect him. 
They are especially eager to follow a man who never sounds a 
retreat. Roosevelt was always advancing, always struggling to 
make things better, to carry some much needed reform and help 

443 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

humanity to a larger chance, to a fairer condition, to a happier 
life. Moreover, he looked always for an ethical question. He 
was at his best when he was fighting the battle of right against 
wrong. He thought soundly and wisely upon questions of 
expediency or of political economy, but they did not rouse him 
or bring him the absorbed interest of the eternal conflict between 
good and evil. Yet he was never impractical, never blinded by 
counsels of perfection, never seeking to make the better the 
enemy of the good. 

"He wished to get the best, but he would strike for all that 
was possible even if it fell short of the highest at which he aimed. 
He studied the lessons of history and did not think the past bad 
simply because it was the past, or the new good solely because it 
was new. He sought to try all questions on their instrinaic 
merits, and that was why he succeeded in advancing, in making 
government and society better where others, who would be con- 
tent with nothing less than an abstract perfection, failed. He 
would never compromise a principle, but he was eminently toler- 
ant of honest difference of opinion. He never hesitated to give 
generous credit where credit seemed due, w-hether to friend or 
opponent, and in this way he gathered recruits and yet never 
lost adherents. 

FRANK IN ALL COMPANIES 

"The criticism most commonly made upon Theodore Roose- 
velt was that he was impulsive and impetuous, that he acted 
without thinking. He would have been the last to claim infalli- 
bility. His head did not turn when fame came to him and 
choruses of admiration sounded in his ears, for he was neither 
vain nor credulous. He knew that he made mistakes, and never 
hesitated to admit them to be mistakes and to correct them or 
put them behind him when satisfied that they were such. But 
he never wasted time in mourning, explaining, or vainly regret- 
ting them, 

"It is also true that the middle way did not attract him. He 
was apt to go far, both in praise and censure, although nobody 
could analyze qualities and balance them justly in judging men 
belter than he. He felt strongly, and as he had no concealments 
of any kind, he expressed himself in like manner. But vehem- 
ence is not violence nor is earnestness anger, which a very wise 
man defined as a brief madness. It was all according to his 
nature, just as his eager cordiality in meeting men and women, 
his keen interest in other people's cares or joys, was not assumed, 

444 



THE OFFICIAL MEMORIAL 

as some persons thought who did not know him. It was all pro- 
foundly natural, it was all real, and in that way and in no other 
was he able to meet and greet his fellow men. He spoke out with 
the most unrestrained frankness at all times and in all companies. 

*'Not a day passed in the Presidency when he was not guilty 
of what the trained diplomatist would call indiscretion. But the 
frankness had its own reward. There never was a President 
whose confidence was so respected or with whom the barriers of 
honor which surround private conversation were more scrupu- 
lously observed. 

" As a matter of fact, what Theodore Roosevelt was trying to 
do was to strengthen American society and American Govern- 
ment by demonstrating to the American people that he was aim- 
ing at a larger economic equality and a more generous industrial 
opportunity for all men, and that any combination of capital or 
of business which threatened the control of the Government by 
the people who made it was to be curbed and resisted, just as he 
would have resisted an enemy who tried to take possession of 
the city of "Washington, 

' ' He had no hostility to a man because he had been successful 
in business or because he had accumulated a fortune. If a man 
had been honestly successful and used his fortune wisely and 
beneficently, he was regarded by Theodore Roosevelt as a good 
citizen. The vulgar hatred of w^ealth found no place in his heart. 
He had but one standard, one test, and that was whether a man, 
rich or poor, was an honest man, a good citizen, and a good 
American. He tried men, whether they were men of big business 
or members of a labor union, by their deeds and in no other way. 
The tyranny of anarchy and disorder, such as is now desolating 
Russia, was as hateful to him as any other tj^ranny, whether it 
came from an autocratic system like that of Germany or from 
the misuse of organized capital. Personally he believed in every 
man earning his own living, and he earned money and was glad 
to do so, but he had no desire or taste for making money, and 
he was entirely indifferent to it. The simplest of men in his own 
habits, the only thing he really would have liked to have done 
with ample wealth would have been to give freely to the many 
good objects which continually interested him. 

HIS POWER OVER MEN 

"Theodore Roosevelt's power, however, and the main source 
of all his achievements, was not in the offices which he held, for 
those offices were to him only opportunities, but in the extraor- 

445 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

dinary hold which he established aud retained over great bodies 
of men. He had the largest personal following ever attained 
by any man in our history. Let me define what I mean by per- 
sonal following. I do not mean the following which comes from 
great political office or from party candidacy. There have been 
many men who have held the highest offices in our history by the 
votes of their fellow countrymen who have never had anything 
more than a very small personal following. 

"By personal following is meant here that which supports 
and sustains and goes with a man simply because he is himself; 
a following which does not care whether their leader and chief 
is in office or out of office, which is with him and behind him 
because they, one and all, believe in him and love him and are 
ready to stand by him for the sole and simple reason that they 
have perfect faith that he will lead them where they wish and 
where they ought to go. 

' ' This following Theodore Roosevelt had, as I have said, in a 
larger degree than any one in our history, and the fact that he 
had it and what he did with it for the welfare of his fellow men 
have given him his great place and his lasting fame. 

"This extraordinary popular strength was not given to him 
solely because the people knew him to be honest and brave, 
because they were certain that physical fear was an emotion 
unknown to him, and that his moral courage equalled the phy- 
sical. It was not merely because they thoroughly believed him to 
be sincere. All this knowledge and belief, of course, went to 
making his popular leadership secure ; but there was much more 
in it than that, something that went deeper, basic elements which 
were not upon the surface. They were due to qualities of tem- 
perament interwoven with his very being, inseparable from him 
and yet subtle rather than obvious in their effects. 

Ills SENSE OF HUMOR 

"Very different, but equally compelling, was another qual- 
ity. There is nothing in human beings at once so sane and so 
sympathetic as a sense of humor. This great gift the good fairies 
conferred upon Theodore Roosevelt at his birth in unstinted 
measure. No man ever had a more abundant sense of humor — 
joyous, irrepressible humor — and it never deserted him. Even 
at the most serious and even perilous moments if there was a 
gleam of humor anywhere he saw it and rejoiced and helped 
himself with it over the rough places. He loved fun, loved to 
joke and chaff, and, what is more uncommon, greatly enjoyed 

446 



THE OFFICIAL MEMORIAL 

being chaffed himself. His ready smile and contagious laugh 
made countless friends and saved him from many an enmity. 
Even more generally effective than his humor was the universal 
knowledge that Roosevelt had no secrets from the American 
people. 

"Yet another quality — perhaps the most engaging of all — 
was his homely, generous humanity which enabled him to speak 
directly to the primitive instincts of man. 

He dwelt with the tribes of the marsh and moor, 

He sate at the board of kings; 
He tasted the toil of the burdened slave 

And the joy that triumph brings. 
But whether to jungle or palace hall 

Or white walled tent he came, 
He was brother to king and soldier and slave, 

His welcome was the same. 

"He was very human and intensely American, and this knit 
a bond between him and the American people which nothing 
could ever break. And then he had yet one more attraction, less 
serious than the others, but none the lass very important and 
very captivating. He never by any chance bored the American 
people. They might laugh at him or laugh with him, they might 
like what he said or dislike it, they might agree with him or dis- 
agree with him, but they were never wearied of him and he 
never failed to interest them. 

A KNIGHT IN HIS DMLY LIFE 

*'He had a touch of the knight errant in his daily life, although 
he would never have admitted it ; but it was there. It was not 
visible in the mediaeval form of shining armor and dazzling tour- 
naments but in the never ceasing effort to help the poor and the 
oppressed, to defend and protect women and children, to right 
the wronged and succor the downtrodden. Passing by on the 
other side was not a mode of travel through life ever possible 
to him, and yet he was as far distant from the professional philau- 
thropist as could well be imagined, for all he tried to do to help 
his fellow men he regarded as part of the day's work to be done 
and not talked about. 

"When the future historian traces Theodore Roosevelt's 
extraordinary' career he will find these embodied ideals planted 
like milestones along the road over which he marched. They 
never left him. His ideal of public service was to be found in 
his life, and as his life drew to its close he had to meet his ideal 

447 



LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

of sacrifice face to face. All his sons went from him to the war 
and one was killed upon the field of honor. Of all the ideals that 
lift men up the hardest to fulfill is the ideal of sacrifice. Theo- 
dore Roosevelt met it as he had all others and fulfilled it to the 
last jot of its terrible demands. His country asked the sacrifice 
and he gave it with solemn pride and uncomplaining lips. 

"This is not the place to speak of his private life, but within 
that sacred circle no man was ever more fortunate in the utter 
devotion of a noble wife and the passionate love of his children. 
The absolute purity and beauty of his family life tell us why 
the pride and interest which his fellow countrymen felt in him 
were always touched with the warm light of love. In the home so 
dear to him, in his sleep, death came, and 

"So Valiant-for-Truth passed over and all the trumpets 
sounded for him on the other side. ' ' 

No words at present command could add to the tribute 
thus feelingly uttered in the halls of Congress by Senator 
Lodge, true friend and fidus Achates of Theodore Roose- 
velt with a friendship akin to that of David and Jonathan, 
or that of Damon and Pythias. And as the distinguished 
gathering at Washington responded to the sentiments of 
Senator Lodge, his glowing tribute to his departed friend 
was echoed far and near, in the voices of a nation's 
sp'^kesraen, from New York to San Francisco, from Chi- 
cago to Ne\v Orleans — until a mighty chorus of universal 
tribute to Roosevelt rose to high heaven on that Sabbath 
afternoon, and it proclaimed: 

''He was a man, a great man, and the friend of man; 
but above all else he was a great American, the greatest 
of his day and generation." 



512 

[The total number of paces In this book Is 512, Includlnc 64 papes of lUusfratlons, 
which are not marked by folio numbers, and 448 pages of numbered text.] 



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